Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy beat Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider in women’s tennis doubles in a third-set tiebreaker at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Sunday, 4 August. The final score was 2-6, 6-1 (10-7), with their opponents settling for silver.

The sensational comeback signified Italy’s first Olympic tennis gold in its history. This comes after Lorenzo Musetti won bronze in men’s singles to secure the country’s first Olympic tennis medal in 100 years. It is also the first women’s tennis medal in Italian history.

The duo lost the first set but immediately responded with a dominant second set to force a tiebreaker. The tiebreak began 2-2 before the Italians began to create seperation and eventaully won the match.

“[It’s] not easy after the first set, just wanted to do better in the second set. It’s so important… we gave everything and we got the gold medal,” Paolini said.

Errani echoed a similar sentiment regarding the mental fortitude required to overcome a rough first set.

“Obviously we were struggling in the first set, in the end we made it great,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain defeated Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova of Czechia to claim the bronze medal.