Americans Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul round out Olympic men’s doubles podium in Paris

The men’s doubles podium at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games features two American teams, with Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul capturing the bronze medal over Czechs Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek, 6-3, 6-4.

“It’s been amazing,” Paul said on court after the win. “For us to do it together and bring a medal back, it means everything. We’ve been as close as it gets since we’ve been 14-15 years old. So, just being on the same team together was super special, but to bring something back to the States means everything.”

Following countrymen Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, who won the silver after finishing runner-up in Saturday’s final, Fritz and Paul held off a strong challenge from a team that included mixed doubles gold medalist Machac, winning the bronze on their seventh match point on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“We’ve been talking about how we need to dig all week, whether it’s on court on in the Village,” said Paul. “We feel like we’ve been grinding, so bronze is a good medal for us and we had to dig for it.”

Both contenders for singles medals, Paul fell in the quarterfinals to an on-fire Carlos Alcaraz while Fritz, who also played mixed doubles with Coco Gauff, exited one round earlier to Lorenzo Musetti. Together, the pair were nigh unbeatable in men’s doubles, sending Andy Murray into retirement in the quarterfinals and losing only to eventual gold medalists Matthew Ebden and John Peers in the semifinals.

“I wanted the experience but there was also a reason why I put myself through three events: I wanted to bring home a medal,” Fritz admitted. “After how we felt yesterday after that loss, it’s great to come back and get it done, so we won’t be leaving here empty-handed.”

Rebounding from the 7-5, 6-2 defeat to the Aussies, Fritz and Paul, who were rivals as juniors, enjoyed a strong start against Pavlasek and Machac, who partnered on-and-off partner Katerina Siniakova to win gold in mixed doubles on Friday.

Racing out to a 5-1 lead, the Americans got pegged back by a break before serving it out and carried that momentum out to 5-3 in the second. It was then that things got complicated as the Czechs saved three match points on their own serve—two in a row from 15-40 down—and rallied from 40-0 down in the next game to put pressure back on Fritz and Paul.

Fritz regained his composure on serve and the duo saved a break point before earning a seventh opportunity, one they took to each take home their first Olympic medal.

Fritz and Paul will join Krajicek and Ram on the podium after the latter endured a gut-wrenching defeat to Ebden and Peers, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1), 10-8.