Puig Gives Puerto Rico Its First-Ever Olympic Gold at the 2016 Rio Games

2016 Rio Games

Monica Puig is Puerto Rico’s first-ever Golden Girl…

The 22-year-old Puerto Rican tennis player’s Cinderella run through the 2016 Rio Games has ended with a gold medal around her neck, and the first ever Olympic gold medal for her home country. She’s also the first female medalist representing La Isla del Encanto.

Monica Puig

Puig defeated world No. 2 Angelique Kerber of Germany in the women’s singles final.

Ranked 32 places below her opponent, Puig dominated the final set with an aggressive display of offensive tennis to round off a well-deserved 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory.

Puig dropped to her knees after securing the win as fans, who had chanted “si se puede” throughout the match, proudly waved Puerto Rican flags in the crowd.

Monica Puig

The upset win also meant Puig became the first unseeded player to become Olympic champion since women’s tennis was reintroduced at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Puerto Rico had won just eight Olympic medals — six bronze and two silver — prior to Puig’s success. Six of those were collected in boxing.

After besting two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semifinals, Puig vowed to win gold for her compatriots back home. “It would mean the world,” she told reporters.

Earlier in the tournament, this year’s Cinderella also soundly defeated 2016 French Open champion Garbine Muguruza.

“It’s just amazing. I know my country really appreciates this and I really wanted to give this victory to them. And the way I did this victory tonight, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” she said during the press conference.

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