Laura Pigossi & Luisa Stefani Claim Brazil’s First-Ever Olympic Tennis Medal at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani are celebrating more than an Olympic medal…

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player and the Brazilian tennis player defeated the Russian Olympic Committee‘s Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina for the bronze medal in women’s doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Laura Pigossi & Luisa Stefani

With their victory, the pair has given Brazil its first ever medal in Olympic tennis.

Pigossi and Stefani won 4-6, 6-4, 11-9 in two hours and 11 minutes at Ariake Tennis Park on Saturday, saving four straight match points and winning six straight points to close out the match.

The pair upset two seeded teams in the first rounds of the tournament before losing to Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic, who’ll play for the gold, in the semifinals.

Paula Badosa Upsets World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty at Volvo Car Open

Paula Badosa has taken down the World No. 1.

The 23-year-old Spanish tennis player, currently ranked No. 71 in the world, defeated top-ranked Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-3 at the Volvo Car Open on Friday.

Paula Badosa

Badosa reached the tournament semifinals in her first time at the season’s opening clay-court tournament. And she was rarely pressured by Australia’s Barty on the way to her first victory over a No. 1 player.

Badosa broke Barty’s serve five times, including the last two times Barty served after the second set was tied 3-all.

“I’m still a little bit shocked. I can’t believe what just happened,” Badosa said. “When the ball went out, I was like, ‘What just happened right now?'”

It was the second time in her past four events that Badosa advanced to the semifinals. She’ll face Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova, the 15th seed, on Saturday for a spot in the championship final.

Barty was coming off a victory at the Miami Open last Saturday and looked strong in her first two matches in Charleston. But she fell behind Badosa and struggled to handle her opponent’s serve.

As Badosa got closer to the upset, she worried about Barty’s ability to rally. “Sometimes these matches are very tough to close,” Badosa said. “Today, I’m quite happy that I managed it well.”

Badosa is looking for their first career WTA titles.