Since competing in their first Summer Olympics in 1948, Puerto Rico had never won an Olympic gold medal. Women’s tennis player Monica Puig changed that Saturday night.
Puig, ranked 38th in the WTA rankings, defeated Germany’s Angelique Kerber in three sets, 6-5, 4-6, 6-1, in the women’s singles gold medal match. Puig, who has won one WTA tournament in her professional career (in 2014), is now an Olympic gold medalist. She is also Puerto Rico’s first female Olympic medalist in any sport.
As for Kerber, her silver medal is Germany’s first medal in women’s singles since Steffi Graf took silver in Barcelona in 1992.