Team USA had to settle for Olympic silver in tennis, as Australia’s Matthew Ebden and John Peers beat Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-8 at Roland Garros Saturday.

It is the first U.S. tennis medal since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock defeated Ram and Venus Williams in the mixed doubles, and Sock and Steve Johnson earned bronze in the men’s doubles. It is Australia’s second consecutive medal in the sport, after Peers and three-time Grand Slam singles champion Ash Barty took bronze in the mixed doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.

In a tight first set, Ram and Krajicek broke for 4-2 before being immediately broken back, the Australians dragging them into a tiebreak.

The pattern repeated itself in the second, when Ram and Krajicek broke again to lead 3-1, but the Americans wobbled at *4-3, playing a tentative service game exemplified by a last minute decision to change where Ram would serve at 15-30.

The duo, with seven Grand Slam doubles titles between them across men’s and mixed events, had been largely imperious throughout both the match and their campaign, particularly in dispatching Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal’s “Nadalcaraz” partnership with an exhibition in doubles specialism.

Peers and Ebden took advantage of the minor slip, building momentum and forcing Ram to serve to stay in the second set, before riding their surge in momentum into the set tiebreak to take a 5-1 lead.

Ram and Krajicek left the court before the 10-point tiebreak to decide the match, while Ebden and Peers tried to sustain their energy in the gap that ensued.

Ram and Krajicek had a thoroughly impressive tournament (Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images)

The pairs then took turns to force each other back behind their serves, creating the baseline-to-net exchange pattern that doubles players love — when they are the ones at the net. Peers double-faulted for *2-1 to the Americans, before Ram double-faulted right back for 2-2, and a miscommunication on positioning left a huge gap through the middle that the Australians exploited, before Krajicek bunted a return long to go *4-2 down at the changeover.

At *2-6, Ram hit a volley wide and deep towards the crowd, but Peers scooped it out from barely in the seats, forcing Krajicek to miss a smash wide; Ram then made an unbelievable get off a net-cord to bring things back to *3-7. But a deficit of 3-8* was too much, as Ebden and Peers converted their fifth match point, despite some spirited resistance from Krajicek on serve and return, to claim gold for Australia.

(Top photo: Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images)