Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians

PARIS -- Italy's Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini beat Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-1, 10-7 in a match tiebreaker to win Olympic gold in the women's doubles on Sunday.

It was Italy's first tennis gold medal at any Summer Olympics.

Errani, 37, completed a career Golden Slam by adding her Olympics gold medal to her five Grand Slam doubles titles -- at least one at each of the four major tournaments -- which she accomplished with a different partner, Roberta Vinci.

The silver for Andreeva and Shnaider was the first medal for any Russian athlete at the 2024 Olympics -- technically not representing their country, but competing as neutrals, because of the war on Ukraine.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus are competing at the Paris Games as Individual Neutral Athletes, known by the French acronym AIN. Those nations were banned by the International Olympic Committee from team sports at the Paris Games because of the attack on Ukraine that began in February 2022.

Individual athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were allowed to compete as neutrals if they qualified and then were approved for entry to the Olympics.

The AIN athletes are not allowed to wear uniforms indicating which country they're from, so Andreeva and Shnaider wore all-white outfits, with no flag or other markings related to Russia. Shnaider said her outfit in Paris is the one she used last month at Wimbledon, which has a policy mandating white clothing.

Andreeva is 17 and becomes the second-youngest player to claim a medal in Olympic tennis. Jennifer Capriati was 16 when she won the singles gold for the United States at Barcelona in 1992.

Combined with Lorenzo Musetti's bronze in men's singles on Saturday, the two medals are the first for Italy since one bronze at the 1924 Paris Games.

Olympics doubles uses a first-to-10 tiebreaker instead of a standard third set.

Spain's Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo beat Czech pair Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova to win the bronze medal.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians

Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians

Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians

Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians

Italians win doubles; silver to AIN via Russians