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Nadal wins gold medal in Olympic tennis

BEIJING (AP)—As Rafael Nadal stood in front of the medal podium, his nation’s flag draped across his back like a cape, he looked a little like a Spanish Superman.

In tennis, he is.

Already assured of the No. 1 ranking, Nadal was No. 1 at the Olympics. He won a gold medal Sunday, overcoming two set points in the second set and holding every service game to beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

The gold medal was the first ever for Spain in Olympic tennis, and another milestone in an astounding summer surge by Nadal, who will officially end Roger Federer’s 41/2-year reign atop the rankings Monday. Nadal has won 38 of his past 39 matches, including victories over Federer in the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

“Nowhere in my best dreams I can imagine something like what I did this year,” Nadal said. “I know how difficult it is to win these things, and especially here, because you only have one chance every four years.”

Elena Dementieva earned the gold in women’s singles, taking advantage of 17 double-faults by fellow Russian Dinara Safina to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3


In women’s doubles, Venus and Serena Williams of the United States won the gold, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0. The sisters celebrated with shrieks, then shared a hug.

The Williams sisters failed to medal in singles but found considerable consolation in doubles, improving their lifetime Olympic record as a team to 10-0. They won the doubles gold at Sydney but didn’t play in Athens four years ago because Serena was hurt.

“It does mean more for me to win it with Serena, to share this kind of moment with your sister,” Venus said. “I mean, we are practically joined at the hip.”

Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China beat Ukraine’s Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko for the bronze, 6-2, 6-2.

Russia swept the medals in women’s singles when Vera Zvonareva beat Li Na of China 6-0, 7-5 to win the bronze. That victory made Russia the first nation to win all three medals in one tennis event since Great Britain did so in the 1908 women’s singles.

Tennis was not a medal sport between 1924 and 1988.

Men’s singles has traditionally been an upset-filled event at the Olympics, and Nadal is the first player ranked in the top five to win the gold. He stayed in the athletes’ village and said the experience rejuvenated him.

“I arrived very tired,” he said. “The reason probably I won this title is because I have a fantastic time here enjoying a lot in the village. That was amazing experience for me. Always was a pleasure to know new people, no?”

He took charge against Gonzalez from the start, breaking serve in the second game. Nadal didn’t face any break points until the 12th game of the second set, when he was down 5-6, 15-40.

Gonzalez failed to convert the set points, pushing a volley wide and putting a forehand in the net. The Chilean made five unforced errors in the tiebreaker to give Nadal a commanding lead.

Nadal ripped a backhand passing shot to break at love for a 3-1 lead in the final set, and erased two more break points to hold for 5-2.

He needed four match points to close out the victory, ripping one last Olympian forehand that Gonzalez could barely reach. Nadal collapsed to his back in jubilation.


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“I think I played almost perfect match,” he said.

Gonzalez settled for a silver medal after winning a gold in doubles and a bronze in singles four years ago in Athens.

“I have chances in the second set, and I didn’t take it,” Gonzalez said. “After that, Rafa was dominating. He was make me run a lot. He’s a great champion, because he has been winning every important tournament in the past months.”

Another test is around the corner, and now expectations will be high. Even though Federer has won four consecutive U.S. Open titles, Nadal will be seeded No. 1 when the tournament begins Aug. 25.

The No. 5-seeded Dementieva closed out her victory with a forehand winner, then fell to her knees before walking to net for a congratulatory hug from Safina. Dementieva, who won the silver medal at Sydney in 2000, snapped Safina’s 15-match winning streak.

“I never expected a medal—gold, silver or bronze,” said Dementieva, 26. “It’s unbelievable. For me this is the best moment in my career. I’ll never forget it.”


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Dementieva has been plagued for much of her career by a shaky serve, but it was a frustrated Safina who struggled to put the ball in play. After double-faults she flung her racket, banged it against the concrete and smacked a ball into the stands, but the tantrums failed to help.

Dementieva also packed more punch from the baseline and hit twice as many winners, 26 to 13.

She lost her first three service games and needed 14 points to hold for a 1-0 lead in the second set, giving her a toehold in the match. A flurry of errors by Safina in the final game of the second set helped Dementieva break to even the match.

Safina said she felt the toll of playing nine matches—three in doubles— in the past week.

“I was not the freshest today physically,” she said. “To serve, you have to push yourself up, to jump up. And when the legs are a little bit slow, it just doesn’t go.”

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BEIJING (AP)—Fresh off its latest romp, the U.S. Olympic basketball team got a postgame visit from swimming sensation Michael Phelps.

Like the Americans need another dominant athlete in their locker room?

The U.S. put away Dirk Nowitzki and Germany in a hurry Monday, completing an undefeated march through pool play with a 106-57 victory.

Not since the Dream Team rumbled through Las Ramblas 16 years ago in Barcelona has a team looked this unbeatable. The Americans won their pool games by 32.2 points and averaged 103 points and now move on to a quarterfinal meeting with Australia, the only team they haven’t been able to blow out.

“We feel like we’re playing very well right now, but you have to keep in mind it’s single elimination,” Kobe Bryant said. “You can’t afford any slip-ups.”


After the game, the team exchanged congratulations with Phelps, now free to enjoy the rest of the games after winning eight gold medals in his record-setting Olympics. Bryant and Carmelo Anthony were among the U.S. players who went out to the pool to watch Phelps.

“He made history as one of the best swimmers ever, so for us to be a part of that and be here with him, we just felt good about it,” said Anthony, like Phelps a Baltimore product.

The Americans (5-0) return to the basketball arena Wednesday against Australia, the team that’s provided them with their toughest test in China.

The U.S. led by only seven points midway through the fourth quarter of an 87-76 exhibition victory in Shanghai two weeks ago over an Australian team that didn’t have starting center Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks. He was resting a sore right ankle.

It’s hard to imagine a repeat of that semi-Shanghai surprise with the way the U.S. has played in Beijing.

“Nobody is going to beat them. No way, it’s just not going to happen,” Germany’s Chris Kaman said.

Dwight Howard, who had swimming goggles propped on his head for the postgame press conference, scored 22 points. LeBron James had 18, 16 in the first half, and the Americans put three other players in double figures.

The only thing they might have to work on is Bryant’s dunking. He blew two Monday, but hit three 3-pointers after going only 5-of-24 in the first four games.

Bryant finished with 13 points as the Americans shot 55 percent from the floor and tossed in 11 more 3-pointers after making 12 in their last game.

With the top seed in their group already clinched, the Americans could have come out flat like Lithuania, which entered Monday as the other unbeaten and was trounced 106-75 by Australia.

Instead, they came out and flattened Germany.

The Americans scored 3 seconds into the game when Howard batted the tip to James, who threw it ahead to Anthony for a layup. That was the start of eight straight U.S. points, and the end of any suspense.

Germany missed nine of its first 10 shots, including a blown dunk and a botched putback by Los Angeles Clippers center Kaman. Bryant missed a dunk, too, during that stretch, but Howard and James had consecutive slams to make it 18-3.

“Going against Greece and going against Spain, it was really easy to get up for,” James said. “And we could have easily came in and had one of those games where we make excuses, but we didn’t take a step backwards today and that was good, it was really good.”

The Americans were scoring so easily, they practically got in each other’s way. Chris Paul led a 3-on-1 break and threw an alley-oop that could have gone to either James or Dwyane Wade. James jumped higher and got it to lay it in, then stepped outside to hit his second 3 for a 23-5 bulge.

Up 19 after one, the U.S. scored the first eight points of the second to make it 39-12. The lead was 28 after James drilled 3-pointers on consecutive U.S. possessions, and ballooned to 30 for the first time when Howard scored four straight to make it 49-19 with 3 minutes left in the half.

Bryant hit the side of the rim on another slam attempt early in the third quarter, so he backed up 20 feet and tossed in back-to-back 3s for a 62-29 cushion. Howard later slammed down an alley-oop from Wade, turning into an 80-39 bulge with 2:41 remaining in the period.

Nowitzki, the Dallas Mavericks All-Star, scored 14 points for Germany (1-4), which completed a disappointing Olympics. The Germans looked like contenders in a 95-66 rout of Angola in their opener, but then dropped four straight.

Kaman, who joined the Germans this summer after getting German citizenship, managed just six points.

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BEIJING (AP)—The big debate was whether it would be the best U.S. Olympic track team in 40 years. Maybe ever. Once the torch was lit, though, it started shaping up as one of the biggest disappointments.

A couple of underdogs got things back on track for the Americans on Monday.

Angelo Taylor led a medals sweep in the 400-meter hurdles and Stephanie Brown Trafton won a surprising gold in the discus. A team that came into the day with no gold medals walked out with two. A team that came in trailing Belarus in the medals count walked out in the lead.

“We wanted to uplift the track team,” Taylor said, “and bring home the sweep.”

Who better to lead than a comeback kid?

The Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000, Taylor was laying electrical wire 14 months ago, virtually out of the sport in the aftermath of an ugly legal imbroglio. He failed to make the final in Athens four years ago—he said he had stress fractures in both shins. In Beijing, he became the first 400-meter hurdler since Edwin Moses to win gold medals eight years apart.

He ran a personal-best time of 47.25 seconds, ahead of teammates Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson, who combined to produce the first sweep of the event since the U.S. did it in 1960.

“To go through what I went through and be back on top again—I’m just so blessed right now,” Taylor said.

It will take more performances like these to advance the conversation about this team being as good as the 1968 Mexico City squad, which won 28 medals— fewer events were contested then—and included Bob Beamon, Dick Fosbury, John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

“No way,” Carlos said at the Olympic trials. “They had guys in ‘68 that didn’t make the team that could whip this team. I’m not taking anything away from these young athletes, but I don’t think they have anywhere near the depth we had.”

Slowly, though, the Americans are showing some depth.

There was the sweep.

There was Jenn Stuczynski’s pole vault silver, trailing only Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, who set a new world record. That Cold War-style rivalry got heated after the American said she hoped to “kick some Russian butt.”

There was Brown Trafton, who was considered a field filler more than a medal contender. She threw the discus 212 feet, 5 inches (64.74 meters) on her very first attempt—and that held up to give the U.S. team its first gold.

She didn’t make it out of Olympic qualifying four years ago, had only two throws over 200 feet before this year, and finished only third at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Not great credentials, but none of that matters now.

She won the first gold for a U.S. woman in the discus since Lillian Copeland in 1932 and only the second medal of any color since then.

And then the 28-year-old from Galt, Calif., stood higher than anyone on the medals stand. Yes, a tear or two came to eye, but mostly she just stood there smiling. “The Star-Spangled Banner” finally played.

“I came to the Bird’s Nest to lay a golden egg, and that’s what I did,” Brown Trafton said. “I am surprised we haven’t won more gold. But you know what? I hope this sets a trend.”


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It did.

The hurdlers were considered sweep candidates, but the U.S. had learned over the first three days of the meet that there’s a big difference between being picked to do something and doing it.

Tyson Gay didn’t reach the 100-meter final. The U.S. women were shut out by a Jamaican sweep. Reese Hoffa finished seventh in the shot put. Bernard Lagat didn’t make it out of semifinals in the 1,500.

The 1-2-3 in the hurdles wasn’t as shocking as Taylor leading the way.

Starting in Lane 6, he made up the lag quickly and was racing in front from about the 150-meter mark on. Clement, the 2007 world champion, and Jackson closed the gap down the stretch, but this was a pretty easy victory for Taylor.

His gold at the Sydney Olympics was the high point in a career that got derailed, first with injuries, then when he was put on probation in a case that started when he was arrested after a police officer said he found Taylor naked in a car with a 15-year-old girl.


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“I just had to stay strong,” Taylor said. “I had a lot of people in my corner encouraging me and looking after me.”

His sponsorship pulled, he took a job laying electrical cable in Atlanta— one that got him off work early enough so he could train in the afternoons.

The injuries started to heal and suddenly Taylor found himself in Olympic form. He finished third at the trials and peaked at exactly the right time.

There no such fortune for host China, which lost defending champion 110-meter hurdler Liu Xiang, one of the country’s biggest Olympic stars, to a foot injury.

He lined up for his first qualifying heat, took a few strides out of the blocks, heard a gun that signaled a false start by another runner and then tore his numbers off and limped dejectedly to the tunnel, grimacing and clutching his leg. His hamstring had been a problem, but the tendon in his right foot flared up a couple of days ago, leaving him unable to go.

At least for the morning, the Liu news sent everything else at this meet to the back page—maybe a good thing for an American team off to an unexpectedly poor start.

Gay, Hoffa and Lagat were the biggest names, and just before Liu scratched, two-time Olympic silver medalist Terrence Trammell strained his left hamstring and cleared only one hurdle before pulling up in the opening heat.

Deena Kastor, the American record-holder, pulled out of the marathon with a broken foot, and U.S. women finished 4-5-8 in the 100 and lost their protest that there was a false start—by one of them, no less.

In fact, this was turning into a very Jamaican celebration. Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100, their women swept the event and Bolt kept cruising Monday, coasting through the quarterfinals of the 200, looking for the first sprint double in Wednesday’s final since Carl Lewis in 1984.

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