Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo win bronze for Spain

Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo got Spain off to a dream start on the last day of the Olympic Tennis Event at Paris 2024, winning bronze with a 62 62 defeat of Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova in the opening match on Sunday.

And with their compatriot Carlos Alcaraz guaranteed a gold or silver today, Spain will end the event with two Olympic tennis medals.  

In only their second tournament as a team, Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo were the better pair from the off, breaking Noskova’s serve in the first game, and Muchova’s in the seventh, to take the first set in 31 minutes.

The Spanish kept up the momentum in the second set, and showed the form that gave them a title in their only previous tournament together, on the red clay of Madrid in May this year. They broke both Czech players' serves to take a 3-0 lead before Muchova and Noskova rescued one of the breaks.

For a while the match was more competitive, with the Czechs attacking more and making fewer errors. The rallies became longer and there were some great runs of play at the net, but Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo gelled better and were more accurate with their shot-making. Already one break ahead, they broke Muchova’s serve again in the seventh game, and shortly after Bucsa served out the victory in one hour, 14 minutes.

It was Sorribes Tormo, at 27 the older of the two Spaniards by just a year, who fired the winning volley. She fell to the clay in elation before holding her head in her hands in disbelief. Together she and Bucsa then found their way up through the stands for a celebratory hug with their Spanish support team.

“We are very proud of this big achievement," said Bucsa, whose father was twice an Olympian in biathlon but never won a medal. "We worked so hard, during all my life. My family’s really proud of (me). I don’t have words to describe the feeling that I have now.”

It was an overwhelming experience for Sorribes Tormo too. “For me it’s something incredible, it’s the dream of my life, being here having a medal, and I would also like to thank Cristina because she’s such a good player. She had everything under control all the time, she knew since the other day that we were able to do it and that helped me a lot.”

Sorribes said it was a tougher match than the scoreline suggested. “I think we played very very good… I was playing good from the back, Cristina was playing very good at the net. Then Cristina was playing very good at the back, and I tried to do it good at the net at the end.”

It was a disappointing end to the excellent run at Paris 2024 of Noskova and Muchova, who beat the No. 1 seeded Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the second round, Muchova having only returned in June following nine months out due to wrist surgery.

With Alcaraz guaranteed either a gold or silver medal, Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo have gifted Spain multiple medals at an Olympic Tennis Event for the first time since 2008, when Rafael Nadal won gold and Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual won women’s doubles silver.

That was also the last time that Spain won a women’s doubles medal of any colour, although thanks to the legacy of multiple medal winners Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the country has gone home with a women’s doubles medal five times now since tennis returned to the Olympics in Seoul 1988.

Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo’s bronze also gives the Spanish their 15th Olympic tennis medal overall, including Alcaraz's, since Seoul.

But today is a unique achievement for these women in their careers. Sorribes Tormo revealed that she has no plans to rush off to her next tournament yet, so that she can savour her achievement. “I want to enjoy that moment. I wanna go back home, I wanna stay with my family, I wanna hold the medal all day at home… sleep with the medal and yeah, tennis can wait.”