Russian women shatter Hingis' gold bid

RIO DE JANEIRO — Russia's Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina shattered Martina Hingis' hopes of a golden Olympic return after a 20-year absence with victory in the women's doubles final Sunday. The seventh seeds won 6-4, 6-4 against Hingis and Swiss partner Timea Bacsinszky, seeded five. Hingis last played the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta. For the Russian duo, the gold medal comes on top of their two Grand Slam titles together at the 2013 French Open and 2014 US Open. "We were in good shape because we won the tournament right before. We won! Oh my God," said Vesnina, who captured the Montreal doubles title with lifelong friend Makarova on the eve of Rio. However, that victory almost cost them dear as a series of flight delays and cancellations meant it took the pair the best part of four days to get to Brazil, arriving two days before the event started. The result ended a difficult Olympics for 35-year-old Hingis. First, Roger Federer, her scheduled partner in the mixed doubles, withdrew with injury and a day later Belinda Bencic, her doubles teammate, also pulled out. In a last-minute solution, where Vitorija Golubic dropped out of the team, Hingis was paired with Bacsinszky. Hingis also split with regular tour doubles partner, India's Sania Mirza despite the duo being the top ranked players in the world. Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna failed in their bid to give India its first medal of the Rio Olympics when they lost the tennis mixed doubles bronze medal playoff. The Indian fourth seeds slumped to a 6-1, 7-5 defeat to Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in just 71 minutes. Mirza and Bopanna had lost in the semifinals Saturday to Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram of the United States. It was a third tennis bronze in Rio for the Czechs after Petra Kvitova in women's singles and Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova in the women's doubles.