Cristina Bucsa & Sara Sorribes Tormo Claim Bronze in Women’s Doubles at 2024 Paris Games

2024 Paris GamesCristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo have bounced back to earn some special Olympic hardware…

The 26-year-old Spanish professional tennis player and her 27-year-old compatriot defeated the Czech Republic’s Linda Nosková and Karolína Muchová in the women’s doubles bronze medal match 6-2, 6-2 to claim the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

Cristina Bucsa & Sara Sorribes TormoPlaying in just their second tournament as a team, the Spaniards bounced back to claim the bronze for their country.

The eighth-seeded Spaniards – who won the Madrid Open together in May – were rock solid throughout and seemed to have all the answers as they sealed a brilliant victory, Sorribes Tormo finishing it off with a brilliant forehand volley.

Bucsa and Sorribes had lost in the semifinals to Diana Schnaider and Mirra Andreeva 1-6, 2-6 on Friday to miss out on the gold medal round.

Rafael Nadal to Play Singles & Doubles at 2024 Paris Games

Rafael Nadais set to play at the 2024 Paris Games.

The 38-year-old Spanish professional tennis player has been named to the Spanish tennis team for the Paris Olympics, where he’ll also partner with French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in doubles, the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation has announced.

Rafael NadalNadal, who has been limited the past two years by a number of injuries, has said the Olympic Games were his focus and that he could skip Wimbledon to prepare.

“My main goal now is to play Olympics,” Nadal said after losing in the first round at Roland Garros on May 27. “That’s going to be here. So I need to prepare myself the proper way to try to arrive here healthy and well prepared, and then let’s see.”

Nadal and Alcaraz will play in both singles and doubles at the Games.

The tennis competition will be held at Roland Garros, where Nadal is a 14-time Grand Slam champion and Alcaraz just won the French Open on Sunday.

“One pair, which I think everyone knows and was hoping for, is Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal and the second pair is yet to be decided. It hasn’t been 100% confirmed yet,” national team coach David Ferrer told reporters.

Alcaraz, who will be making his Olympic debut, has set winning an Olympic medal for Spain as one of his top career goals. He said after winning at Roland Garros that this year he would prefer a gold medal at the Paris Olympics over successfully defending his Wimbledon title.

“The Olympic Games are every four years and it’s a special tournament where you’re not only playing for yourself, but for a country, representing every Spaniard,” the No. 2-ranked Alcaraz said. “I think this year I’d choose Olympic gold.”

Nadal has a singles gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Games and a 2016 gold in doubles, when he played with Marc Lopez.

Spain also selected Pablo Carreno Busta, Alejandro Davidovich and Marcel Granollers (doubles) for the men’s competition. Captain Anabel Medina picked No. 55 Sara Sorribes Tormo and No. 67 Cristina Bucsa — the top-ranked Spanish players — for the women’s team, with Paula Badosa deciding not to compete as she has only two more events to play while using her protected ranking.

Cristina Bucsa Claims Singles & Doubles Titles at Open BLS de Limoges

Cristina Bucsa is celebrating a special double…In the final WTA 125 tournament of the 2023 season, the 25-year-old Spanish tennis player swept the singles and doubles titles at the Open BLS de Limoges in Limoges, France on Sunday.

Cristina Bucsa

Bucsa started the day with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over French hope Elsa Jacquemot in the singles final. No.5 seed Bucsa, ranked World No.82 in singles, took 1 hour and 48 minutes to outlast 235th-ranked Jacquemot and win her first career WTA 125 singles title.

Less than an hour later, Bucsa headed back to the center court for the doubles final, where she and Yana Sizikova upset No.2 seeds Oksana Kalashnikova and Maia Lumsden 6-4, 6-1 to claim the title.

Bucsa had not dropped a set on her way to the Limoges singles final, but she did have a tricky quarterfinal against 20-year-old wild card Lois Boisson on Friday.

In that match, France’s Boisson led 5-0 in the first set before Bucsa fended off three set points and took it in a tiebreak. Bucsa eventually won that match 7-6(3), 6-2.

Another 20-year-old Frenchwoman was Bucsa’s opponent in Sunday’s final, and this time, Jacquemot was able to build a 4-0 advantage and hold on for the one-set lead. Jacquemot won 88 percent of her first-serve points in the first set, where she also never faced break point.

But it was Bucsa who was commanding in the second set, where she fired a forehand winner down the line to lead 3-0. From there, Bucsa cruised through the rest of the second set, where she never faced break point.

In the third set, Jacquemot hit consecutive double faults to drop serve in the opening game. Extending points with superb speed, Bucsa built on that momentum, breaking Jacquemot at love for 5-2.

Serving for the title, Bucsa came back from 0-30 down and carved a backhand to force a netted error from Jacquemot on the Spaniard’s first championship point. Bucsa will move up to a new career-high singles ranking of No.61 on Monday.

In the doubles final, Bucsa and Sizikova broke their opponents seven times en route to the 68-minute win. The champions were twice down an early break at both 2-0 and 3-1 in the opening set, but they notched 11 of the next 13 games to attain victory.

Bucsa has now won four WTA 125 doubles titles in her career — all of which have come in the last 13 months, and alongside four different partners.

It is the second WTA 125 doubles title of Sizikova’s career, with her previous one coming at Colina, Chile last November with Aldila Sutjiadi.