Tokyo Olympics digest: Alexander Zverev to play for gold after Novak Djokovic upset
German tennis star Alexander Zverev is set to play for the gold medal in men’s singles after shocking Novak Djokovic 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals.
The upset ended Djokovic’s bid for a Golden Slam — winning all four tennis Grand Slams and an Olympic gold in the same year. The Serbian superstar has so far won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments in 2021.
Yet Djokovic will now have to make do with a bronze medal, at best. He’ll face Carreno Busta in the podium-place play-off this Saturday. Despite having won a joint-record 20 Grand Slams in his career, Djokovic has never won an Olympic medal before. His fourth place finish at London 2012 is his best effort so far.
Zverev, meanwhile, becomes the first German to reach an Olympic tennis final since the 2000 Games, where Tommy Haas lost to Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The 24-year-old will face Russian 12th seed Karen Khachanov on Sunday.
Ryan Murphy has lost both of his Olympic backstroke titles to Evgeny Rylov of the Russian Olympic Committee
Gold medals
In the pool, Tatjana Schoenmaker was overjoyed after becoming the first South African woman to win an Olympic swimming gold in 25 years as she obliterated the eight-year-old world record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds.
Having needed crowdfunding to make it to the Olympics, Great Britain’s BMX cyclist Bethany Shriever went on to win gold without losing a single race. Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands had earlier taken gold in the men’s discipline.
The first gold medal of the day went to Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos, who won the men’s single sculls final with a new Olympic best time of 6 minutes, 40.45 seconds.
Germany update
In rowing, the men’s eight missed out on gold as they added to their silver medals from Rio 2016. After three World Championship titles in a row, the German Rowing Association’s flagship boat lost to New Zealand in the final with Great Britain in third.
Led by two-goal scorer Lisa Altenburg, the women’s field hockey team made it four wins out of four in the group stages courtesy of a commanding 4-1 victory against South Africa.
Hammes Aigner sealed bronze for Germany in the men’s canoe slalom (K-1). His time of 97.11 seconds was just enough to seal a medal ahead of Austria’s Felix Oschmautz, who crossed the line in 98.79 seconds.
More news from Tokyo 2020
Coronavirus numbers continue to rise on Friday after a new daily high was registered with 27 positive cases at the Olympics, increasing the total figure for the Tokyo Games to 220. There had been 24 new infections the previous day. The positive cases again include three athletes, but the names of those affected have not been published by the organizers. It’s the most positive cases registered in a single day since recording began on July 1.
American swimmer Ryan Murphy voiced concerns about doping following the victory of Russian Evgeny Rylov in the 200-meter backstroke on Friday, saying: “I’m swimming in a race that’s probably not clean.” Murphy had to settle for silver after being beaten for a second time this week by the 24-year-old Rylov, who also took Murphy’s 100-meter backstroke Olympic title on Tuesday. The American later clarified his comments, saying he was focusing on doping in swimming in general.
Tokyo Olympic Digest: Thursday 29 July