Eugenie Bouchard, Bianca Andreescu celebrate Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime & Gabriela Dabrowski's mixed doubles bronze medal at Paris Olympics
Canadian tennis stars Eugenie Bouchard and Bianca Andreescu celebrated Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski's mixed doubles bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Canadian mixed doubles pair defeated the Dutch pair of Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs in the bronze medal match.
Auger-Aliassime and Dabrowski paired up for the second time at the Olympics following their disappointing first-round exit in Tokyo. They were much more clinical this time out and notched up impressive wins.
The Canadian pair won the first-ever mixed doubles medal in Canada's history. Auger-Aliassime posted about their achievement on Instagram with multiple images of himself with Dabrowski at Roland Garros from their Olympics campaign. He captioned the post:
"First Olympic medal 😆🥉🇨🇦 What a week with @gabydabrowski... Hard to describe what this medal means and the honor it has been to represent Canada 🙌🏽 The Olympics hold a special place in my heart and I’m ready to go for another one tomorrow ❤️💪🏽 Cmon," Felix wrote.
Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, who recently competed at the Citi Open in Washington DC, commented on the post:
"So proud of you guys," she wrote.
Bianca Andreescu, who faced a second-round exit in the women's singles event at the Paris Olympics, commented with heart-eye emojis.
Auger-Aliassime and Dabrowski started their campaign with an impressive 7-5, 4-6, [10-3] win over Great Britain's Heather Watson and Joe Salisbury. In the quarterfinal, they defeated USA's Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff 7-6(2), 3-6, [10-8].
However, they faced a defeat against Czech Republic's Tomas Machac and Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal. The Czech pair went on to win gold while Canada defeated the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6(2) in the bronze medal match.
"The Olympics are every four years so to catch a medal is amazing" - Felix Auger-Aliassime on mixed doubles triumph with Gabriela Dabrowski
Celebrating his bronze medal, Felix Auger-Aliassime told the media after the match:
“It’s great when you get rewarded... You don’t often get rewarded in this tough sport — and the Olympics are every four years so to catch a medal is amazing," he said.
“We did everything we could during the week to (stay fit and strong.) Whenever in life you get rewarded for staying resilient, it pushes you hard to continue that,” Felix added.
Meanwhile, Dabrowski revealed that she fulfilled a childhood dream with the bronze medal. After the match, she told the media:
“I’m so happy to play and win a medal in something I’ve dreamt of since I was a kid.”
The only other medal won by Canada in Olympics tennis was Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau's men's doubles gold at the 2000 Sydney Games. Auger-Aliassime will have a chance to add another medal to Canada's tally as he faces Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in the men's singles bronze medal match on Saturday, August 3.