“It solely comes round as soon as each 4 years and even simply to play it’s ridiculous. To win a gold medal, I believe it’s like folklore. It’s past me.”
And to do it with Friends, a Melburnian buddy who now lives a road away from him in Perth, with their wives and youngsters having change into the most effective of pals too, it was all additional particular.
“Some miracle work has occurred and by some means we’ve now obtained a gold medal for our streets,” beamed Ebden.
Gold for the Aussies! 🥇
Matthew Ebden & John Friends take the boys’s doubles gold medal. Profitable Australia’s first gold within the Olympic Tennis Occasion since Atlanta 1996#Paris2024 | #Olympics | #tennis pic.twitter.com/pyffvwrTY8
— ITF (@ITFTennis) August 3, 2024
A tough-earned one, too. The large signal on Chatrier says “Victory belongs to essentially the most tenacious” and that was undoubtedly the case right here because the Aussie duo clawed again from a set and 4-2 down, when all appeared misplaced with the American Davis Cup pair starting to dominate.
However the Australians, who’d performed a number of tournaments collectively and reached a few finals, simply wouldn’t lie down, with Ebden relighting their hearth, enjoying an excellent recreation within the second set to assist break Ram for 4-4 earlier than exhorting the gang, together with loads of compatriots, to get behind them.
All the way down to a second tiebreak, Perth’s Ebden and Melbourne’s Friends started to play their finest tennis to drop only one level and take the match into a brilliant tiebreak finale, with the gold for the primary to 10 factors.
It appeared plain crusing when Friends and Ebden raced into an 8-3 lead, together with one astonishing piece of retrieving from the again of the court docket by a scrambling Friends that enabled them to prevail in a seemingly unwinnable level.
However nerves kicked in because the Individuals hit again and saved three match factors. Ebden agonisingly missed the simplest volley of all at 9-7.
With Ellie, considered one of his two little daughters within the stand crossing her fingers for dad, Friends then dug his mate out of a possible gap by placing away the successful smash at 9-8 earlier than the 2 outdated friends jumped into one another’s arms.
Friends needed the second to encourage his largest followers. “I hope it could make them dream large and know the sky’s the restrict, that they’ll do something they wish to put their minds to,” stated one proud dad.
| Australian Olympic Tennis Medal Winners | ||
| Seoul 1988 | Elizabeth Smylie/Wendy Turnbull | Bronze, Girls’s Doubles |
| Barcelona 1992 | Nicole Bradtke/Rachel McQuillan | Bronze, Girls’s Doubles |
| Atlanta 1996 | Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde | Gold, Males’s Doubles |
| Sydney 2000 | Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde | Silver, Males’s Doubles |
| Athens 2004 | Alicia Molik | Bronze, Girls’s Singles |
| Tokyo 2020 | Ash Barty/John Friends | Bronze, Combined Doubles |
| Paris 2024 | Matt Ebden/John Friends | Gold, Males’s Doubles |
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