Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa win bronze in doubles

What a discovery for Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa, the pair who met in the doubles by chance and soon after won the Olympic bronze in Paris, beating the Czechs Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova by 6-2 and 6-2 in 1h 13m. It is spring and Sorribes’ usual partner, the also Czech Marie Bouzkova, is not in the Madrid tournament. The Castellón native, aged 27, proposes the alliance to the Cantabrian, aged 26, and without knowing it, a fantastic chemistry arises that leads first to the triumph in the capital and now to the podium of the Games. Spanish tennis has now won its 14th Olympic medal, half of them in doubles, and five of those seven were won by women in a kind of generational change: the dance was opened with a silver by Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario and Conchita Martínez in Barcelona 92, the same duo took a bite of bronze in Atlanta 96, Conchita continued her successes with Vivi Ruano with a second place in 2004, and Ruano and Anabel Medina continued the tradition with silver in 2008.

The Spanish pair stand strong on the court and take the first game on return, combative and aggressive, well synchronised and fast at the net, and after defending their serve they are back to 15-40 to take a big bite, although they miss that train. Even so, they have started full of confidence in the face of the opportunity they have built based on faith, almost from nothing. Sorribes defends the back of the court and Bucsa attacks from close range to protect the serve and keep control, and then they exchange roles and it is the Cantabrian born in Moldova who bites at the net to take another bite of the set when the Czechs serve. Spain leads without much sweat, and ties the first set 6-2 in 31 minutes.

“I’m here!”, shouts Bucsa from an offside position to warn her partner that the high ball is hers, and so she finishes mercilessly, and Spain begins the second set like the first, breaking serve, grabbing the shuttlecock. Sorribes presses to protect her serve, intelligently playing a couple of down-the-line shots that dismantle the Czech machine. The two teams then exchange breaks, more relaxed when they do not have the initiative to start the game, until the roulette wheel returns to Sorribes and the Castellón player does not let go. It is the blow on the table that the Spanish pair needs to make it clear who is in charge in the match and grab the medal at the first opportunity, the finishing touch to a bronze discovery.

“I just wanted to be a tennis player,” Sorribes finally laughs, having ended up in tears when she lost her singles duel to another Czech, Barbora Krejcikova, after being close to victory, on the day her family had surprised her by travelling to Paris to see her. “I remember that in 2014 I said that I just wanted that, to live off tennis, to enjoy my passion, and I have achieved it. My career is better than I could have dreamed. This medal is the dream of a lifetime.”

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