Croatia will win gold and silver at the men’s doubles final at Tokyo Olympics

Pavic/ Mektic defeated American duo Austin Krajicek/ Tennys Sandgren in straight sets to set up an all-Croatian men’s doubles final

Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Tennis – Men’s Doubles – Round 1 – Ariake Tennis Park – Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. Marin Cilic of Croatia and Ivan Dodig of Croatia react during their first round match against Taro Daniel of Japan and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan REUTERS/Mike Segar / Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

July 29, 2021

Croatia are assured of the gold and silver medals in the men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics after the pairings of Nikola Mektic/ Mate Pavic and Ivan Dodig/ Marin Cilic won thier semi-final encounters on Thursday to move into the final.

The world’s top-ranked dup of Nikola Metkic/ Mate Pavic defeated the American duo Austin Krajicek/ Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-4 in the second semi-final of the day.

Metkic and Pavic have dominated the men’s doubles circuit this year, winning 8 titles this year, including Wimbledon and three ATP Masters Series titles.

The #Tokyo2020 men's doubles final:

🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷 pic.twitter.com/s1ozzqx59I
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) July 29, 2021

Dodig/ Cilic, who do not usually play doubles on the ATP tour, were the first to advance after a 6-2, 6-2 win over the New Zealand duo Michael Venus/ Marcus Daniell.

Cilic, a former US Open singles champion, was undoubtedly ecstatic upon reaching the final with his countryman. “We started tennis together, and to reach this last thing, to win a medal for our country, for ourselves together, is just unreal. We are incredibly proud of ourselves and we played an unbelievable tournament here – the best tournament we ever had together. We showed our strength and how good we are as a team,” he said as quoted by the ITF website.