Russia beats Switzerland in Olympic women’s doubles

Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, the No. 7 seeds, defeated Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis, the No. 5 seeds, 64, 64 in the Olympic women’s tennis doubles gold medal match on Sunday.

The Russians needed just a big push in the middle of each set to beat the Swiss team, which was out of synch at times and depended on Hingis’s net play to score points.

Makarova and Vesnina, who reached the quarterfinals at the London Olympics four years ago, took out Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro and Garbiñe Muguruza in the Rio quarters and the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova in the semis.

Safarova and Strycova won the bronze medal.

At 33 in the first set, Makarova and Vesnina broke Hingis’s serve, taking advantage of two shots by the Swiss veteran that went long and a breakdown in communications between their rivals.

The Russians consolidated the break and nearly broke Hingis again, forcing the 35yearold Swiss doubles star to save three set points.

Makarova and Vesnina then served and took the first set 64.

The Swiss duo had a break opportunity with Vesnina serving at 23 in the second set, but the Russians managed to hold.

The Russians got a break to push the score to 54 and served out the match for the gold medal, jumping and hugging as they celebrated their Olympic title.

Hingis, who has won five doubles titles this season with regular partner Sania Mirza, of India, got a silver medal for Switzerland.

Mirza, for her part, lost in the mixed doubles bronze medal match.

Hingis, a fivetime Grand Slam champion, won her first major title 20 years ago and completed the Grand Slam in doubles in 1998.