Venus misses record fifth gold

Sock and Mattek-Sands promptly held twice to make it 9-6, the latter producing an exceptional volley to escape a body shot from Williams and bring up four gold medal points.

Sock and Mattek-Sands won the first three points before Williams and Ram rattled off six straight to take a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker (instead of a full third set, mixed doubles have a tiebreaker where the first to 10 points with a two-point margin wins).

With this victory, Mattek-Sands earned her first Olympic medal.

But they recovered to win the set when a Williams return sailed long, forcing a 10-point tiebreak they also won.

Earlier in Rio, Sock took a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Steve Johnson.

Even without winning gold, Williams still made a bit of history Sunday. She is tied with Britain’s Kathleen McKane, who won five medals between 1920-24.

Hradecka and Stepanek’s win meant that the Czech Republic had finished off with a bronze medal in each of the three categories of the sport. She now shares the record of four golds with her sister Serena.

The Russians got a break in the ninth game of each set to wrap up a 6-4, 6-4 win to claim the gold medal, while the Swiss team had to settle for the silver.

Venus won singles gold at Sydney in 2000 and doubles titles with sister Serena in 2000, 2008 and 2012.

Venus, who lost in the first round in singles play in Rio, and Ram teamed up at the last minute and Williams admitted their success was surprising.