Tokyo Olympics 2020: No medal for Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury as the duo crash out in quarter-finals of the Men’s Doubles

Tokyo Olympics 2020: No medal for Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury as the duo crash out in quarter-finals of the Men’s Doubles

Joe Salisbury and Andy Murray

British hopes of a tennis medal from Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury ended as the duo was knocked out in the quarter-final by Croatians Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in a thrilling 3-set clash on Court 5 of Ariake Tennis Center. The Brits won the 1st set and came very close in winding up the match in the 2nd set, however, a great effort by the Croatians saw them win the 2nd set.

The Croatians came out on top in the tie-breaker and won another exciting 3rd set to take the match, 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-7 to advance into the semi-finals of the Men’s Doubles and have the Olympics medal in sight. The Croatians won a total of 83 points while the Brits won 79 points, justifying their close encounter that could’ve gone either way.

Murray and Salisbury combined for 5 aces while the Croatians couldn’t get any, but they were disciplined in terms of forced errors, committing only 16 while the Brits made 28 forced errors. In the final set, it all came down to winning the crucial moments and the Croatians found a way out of it to knock the British pair out of the tournament, denying Murray a historic Olympic medal.

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British Tennis challenge ends at the Olympics

Andy Murray
Andy Murray

The British tennis contingent comprised 6 players, Heather Watson, Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Liam Broady, Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury. Of these, only Heather and Liam played in Singles as Andy pulled out at the last moment to focus on Doubles and not get injured playing both the competitions.

Jamie and Neal partnered in Men’s Doubles and Joe partnered Andy for the 2nd team. While the team of Jamie and Neal crashed out in the 2nd round, the hopes relied on Joe and Andy as Heather was defeated in the first round of Women’s Singles. Liam Broady also lost to France’s Jeremy Chardy in the 3rd round of Men’s Singles ending the British challenge for a tennis medal this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6_omZM4-YQ

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