Nicolas Massu of Chile won the Olympic men’s singles tennis gold medal when he incredibly beat American Mardy Fish in yesterday’s final 16 hours after winning the doubles with Fernando Gonzalez.
He hung in for a 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win to cap a tremendous day in Olympic history for Chile. His five set doubles win was Chile’s first ever Olympic gold medal in any sport. It finished at 2:40 yesterday morning and after the medals ceremony he had to go to doping control and for a massage.
But last night after hardly any sleep he fought back from two sets-to-one down to win in exactly four hours of momentous tennis. Gonzalez, who lost to Fish in the semifinals, beat American Taylor Dent for the bronze medal to give Chile three Olympic medals — two golds and a bronze.
Gonzalez had said earlier that his best friend Massu could shake off the effects of their doubles epic to grab a second gold medal against Fish. And he did.
Gonzalez and Massu had earlier won Chile’s first ever Olympic gold medal when they beat Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 in the men’s doubles final which started at 11p.m. on Saturday and ended at 2:40 yesterday morning.
But Gonzalez was not worried for Massu. “He’s tough and will be inspired by this win,” said Gonzalez. “He could run marathons.”
The Chileans saved four match points in the fourth set tie-breaker, fighting their way back from 6 2 down to take the set 9 7.
Then Massu broke Kiefer with a fantastic passing shot which just squeezed in for a 5-4 lead in the fifth set and Gonzalez served out the match after the Germans had saved a match point themselves.
“It’s a wonderful thing for Chile. I want to dedicate this to all the people ... my family, my friends,” said Gonzalez. “I will have this medal my whole life and today will stay with me forever.”
Newbery Wins Platform Gold for Australia
Chantelle Newbery became the first Australian to win the Olympic women’s platform diving title with a clear-cut victory in the final yesteray. Newbery, who shared bronze with Irina Lashko in the three-meter synchronized event, went into the final in third place after Saturday’s four semifinal dives.
But she took the lead in the third round of the five-dive final and went on to win comfortably, amassing 590.31 points from her four semifinal and five final dives.
Chinas Lao Lishi (576.30), world championship silver medalist, dropped from first to fourth in the second round but pulled back in the final round from third to take the silver.
Australia’s Loudy Tourky, world championship bronze medalist in 2001, led after the second round but dropped to third with a badly executed armstand dive.
She dropped to fourth with one round to go but recovered to claim the bronze with 561.66. World champion Emilie Heymans of Canada dropped from second to fourth on the final dive. Newbery’s husband Robert shared bronzes in the men’s synchronized three-meter and platform finals.
Defending champion Laura Wilkinson of the US could never get into real medal contention and finished fifth on 549.72, just ahead of China’s Li Ting, who shared gold with Lao in the synchronized platform event.
