Lisa Raymond won’t achieve her goal of Olympic gold during the London Olympics but will still get a chance to win an elusive medal.
The Wayne, Pa. native and partner Mike Bryan dropped their Mixed Doubles semifinals match 6-3, 4-6, (10)-(7) to the duo of Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
Raymond and Bryan, who was coming off winning gold earlier in the day in Men’s Doubles, looked ready to take care of the Belorussians after easily winning the first set 6-3. But in the second set the far-younger team from Belarus (combined 48 years to the American’s 72 combined years) broke the Americans to win 6-4 and then they took the tiebreaker 10-7 to complete the victory.
The loss drops Raymond and Bryan into the bronze medal match where they will face Germany’s Sabine Lisicki and Christopher Kas at 11 a.m. Two hours earlier Raymond fellow No. 1 doubles tennis partner Liezel Huber will face Russia’s Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the Women’s Doubles bronze medal match.
“For me the one thing I’m missing in my career is a medal from the Olympics,” Raymond said before the Games. “I’ve won slams, I’ve gotten the rankings, I’ve won the tournaments but to be on that podium that’s something I’ve never done, I’ve never achieved.
“It would probably be the greatest moment of my tennis career.”
Well that medal will have to be bronze and she gets two shots at it.
