Spaniard Pablo Carreño defeats Novak Djokovic to grab an Olympic bronze

Spaniard Pablo Carreño defeats Novak Djokovic to grab an Olympic bronze in Tokyo.

Spanish tennis player Pablo Carreño has beaten world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 in the match for third and fourth place to win a bronze medal in Tokyo 2020.

The Asturian is now fifth in Spain in the Games, after the silvers of Adriana Cerezo (taekwondo), Maialen Chourraut (canoeing), David Valero (mountain bike) and the gold that Fátima Gálvez and Alberto Fernández achieved in the shooting today, Saturday, July 31.

“The goal is to get a medal,” Carreño said after landing in Tokyo. 

His recent high playing standard (he won in Hamburg before the Games) and the losses in the men’s team gave him some options: he was the sixth seed and the podium was within his reach. In a week, he only faltered once, which was on Friday in the semifinals against Karen Khachanov. In the rest of the games, he has been superior to his rivals, including Djokovic.

Carreño needed up to six match balls to beat Djokovic. The first was in the ‘tie break’ of the second set, after winning the first set and coming back from 4-1 against in the second.

The other five, in what seemed like an endless ninth game of the third set, saw the Serbian holding on to the game and delaying once and again glory for the Spaniard.

Djokovic had missed out on the Golden Slam by losing a semi-final clash with Alexander Zverev on Friday and had to return to court a day later to try and win a second career bronze.

It is the greatest success of Carreño’s career, who arrived in Tokyo convinced that he had medal options and would return home with a bronze.

It is the 13th tennis medal for Spain, which has managed to get on the podium in this sport in all the Olympic Games since Seoul 1988, with the exception of London 2012. Carreño’s success highlighted good performances put in by the entire team.

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