Monica Puig beats Angelique Kerber to seal historic first Olympic gold medal for Puerto Rico in Rio 2016 women's tennis final
Outsider Puig beats world no.2 Angelique Kerber to clinch women's singles title and make Olympic Games history
Monica Puig also becomes the first woman to win a medal for Puerto Rico at the Olympic Games (Photo: Getty Images/Clive Brunskill)
Monica Puig won the women's singles tennis title and became the first athlete in history to win an Olympic Games gold medal for Puerto Rico.
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The 22-year-old outsider, who has never been beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, shocked Germany's world no.2 Angelique Kerber with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory at the Olympic Tennis Centre on Saturday (13 August)
Puig, ranked no.34 in the world, also becomes the first female athlete from Puerto Rico to win an Olympic medal of any colour.
Puig's historic gold medal was just reward for a brave display full of attacking intent against her more illustrious opponent, who won the 2016 Australian Open and also reached the Wimbledon last month.
"The Olympics isn't about me, it's about Puerto Rico," Puig said before the match - the Caribbean island having previously attained a total of eight medals in its history, six of them in boxing and all won by men.
Early nerves, therefore, would have been understandable - and Puig made an inauspicious start as she lost the first game on her own serve.
However, she responded by going on the attack and immediately broke back, setting the tone for the rest of the match. Puig broke again in the final game of the first set, closing it out with a thumping backhand down the line.
The underdog fought back from a break down to restore parity at 4-4 in the second set, but Kerber broke again before edging a tense final game in which Puig saved four set points.
In a one-sided final set, all Puig's attacking prowess came to the fore - in total she made a total of 54 winners compared to Kerber's 31.
She fought back from 40-0 down in a marathon final game, eventually sealing the title with her fourth match point when Kerber send a shot wide.
The winner's initial expression was one of disbelief, followed by flood of tears as the realisation came that she had done something for Puerto Rico that will never be forgotten.
