Czech women's doubles tennis team wins Olympic gold

The Czech tennis team of Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková defeated Switzerland's Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic 7-5, 6-1 at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo today to take home the gold medal in women's doubles.

Seeded #1 in the doubles tournament, Krejčíková and Siniaková nevertheless faced a difficult route to gold, going to three sets apiece in their previous three games against Spain (Paula Badosa Gibert and Sara Sorribes Tormo), Australia (Ashleigh Barty and Storm Sandes), and the Russian Olympic Committee (Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina).

Today, Krejčíková and Siniaková handily beat the Swiss team to win the gold in straight sets.

Yesterday, Bencic played spoiler for the Czech Republic's Markéta Vondroušová, taking home the gold medal in a hard-fought singles match. Vondroušová ended up with the silver in women's singles at the Tokyo Olympics.

Today, however, the Czech doubles team dominated their Swiss opponents in the second set after a tight opening set that saw Krejčíková and Siniaková come back to win 7-5.

Despite the success of Czech tennis stars, it's the first Olympic gold for the Czech Republic's tennis team since the formation of the country in 1993. For Czechoslovakia, Miloslav Mečíř was the only gold medal winner in men's singles at the 1988 games in Seoul.

The gold medal win continues an incredible run for Barbora Krejčíková in 2021. The Czech star won both the French Open singles and doubles (with Siniaková) earlier this year, rising significantly in WTA rankings.

The medal gives the Czech Republic eight medals at the Tokyo Olympics, with four golds, three silvers and one bronze. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the country scored just a single gold medal.

On Friday, canoeist Jiří Prskavec won the K1 Men's Slalom. Later in the day, judoka Lukáš Krpálek, responsible for the only Czech gold in 2016, won the men's +100 kilogram judo competition.

On Thursday, Jiří Lipták won the trap shooting competition to give the Czech team its first gold medal.

The Czech Republic currently ranks #11 in the Olympic Medal Count, ahead of Germany, Canada, and Switzerland, with a week of games left to go.