Barty and Peers win Olympic mixed bronze at Tokyo 2020

Ashleigh Barty and John Peers won Australia’s first ever medal in Olympic mixed doubles competition, securing bronze at Tokyo 2020 after they were handed a walkover by Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic.

The Australians had been due to face Djokovic and Stojanovic in the second match on Court 1 on Saturday, but Djokovic withdrew from the match with a left shoulder injury following his three-set defeat to Pablo Carreno Busta in the singles bronze medal play-off.

"Obviously it seemed incredibly tough to Team Serbia to not be able to get on the court tonight, but for John and I it's a dream come true," said world No. 1 Barty.

“We came here to fight, we came here to win a medal for our nation, and now to be able to take a bronze medal back home and add to the Australian tally is incredible." 

The duo progressed to the bronze medal match after recording victories over Argentine pair Nadia Podoroska and Horacio Zeballos, and Greek duo Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas, before missing out on the chance to fight for gold following defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev by the narrowest of margins.

The medal represents Australia's sixth in Olympic tennis, and their first since Alicia Molik won bronze in the women’s singles at Athens 2004 - a milestone moment for the pair, however it came. 

“Ash and I both had the Olympics on the schedule this year, it was one of our goals to walk away with a medal for Australia," said Peers. "To be able to say we did, it’s something really special and amazing. 

“If you actually just watch all the matches and (see the) raw emotions that came out the Olympics, is so special for all of us to be here. And it means so much to represent our country."