PARIS -- Matthew Ebden's first day at the Olympics was going so horribly, he half-jokingly offered his tennis racket to a spectator in the crowd. It was as if to say, "go ahead, you might be able to do a better job than me."
The Australian tennis veteran was parachuted into Roland Garros at the eleventh hour, after a spate of injury withdrawals had left the competition scrambling to fill the men's singles first-round bracket. There were two problems. One, Ebden had not played a competitive singles match in two years. The other, he was drawn to face 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, knowing that even the most improbable of wins would likely yield 22-time major winner Rafael Nadal in the next round.
But Djokovic promptly made sure that wouldn't happen, handing Ebden a beatdown of the highest order on court Philippe Chatrier. He copped a bagel in the first set and won just one game in the second, brushed aside in a brisk 53 minutes. Afterwards, Djokovic told reporters "I'm sorry for Matt" given the late call up and subsequent humiliation he was subjected to while representing his country on the Olympic stage.
Seven days later, Ebden was back standing on that same court. But this time, there was a grin from ear to ear, as he proudly showed off his Olympic gold medal. He and close friend John Peers, another journeyman of the ATP circuit, guiding Australia to victory in the men's doubles: the first gold medal in tennis for the nation since 'The Woodies', Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, reigned supreme in Atlanta, 28 years ago.
"To win a gold medal, I think it's like folklore. It's beyond me," Ebden said after the final. "Winning Slams, winning Wimbledon ... we've been into the Davis Cup finals the last couple of years ... but I mean, the Olympics? Gold? Really? It only comes around once every four years and even just to play it is ridiculous. Some miracle work has happened and somehow we've now got a gold medal."
The unseeded Ebden and Peers came from a set down to beat fancied American duo Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-1) (10-8) in a tight, gripping final that ebbed and flowed throughout and had drama until the last point.
The Australian pair showed their resiliency all match. In the first set, they came from a break of serve down to force a tiebreak. They then dug themselves out of a 1-4 hole in that breaker to level at 4-4, only for the Americans to kick away again and pocket the set. It was a similar story in the second, going down an early break and then almost immediately rebounding to level up the set.
Ebden and Peers would take the match out in a first-to-10 tiebreak -- used at the Olympics instead of a traditional third set -- but not before wasting four championship points and having an 8-3 lead turn into 9-8 in the blink of an eye. When they did finally convert they both threw their arms into the air in delight.
The Djokovic beatdown on opening day in Paris proved to be not much of a confidence killer for Ebden. After all, he's a doubles player, not a singles player. And they may as well be different sports, as evidenced by the two teams that reached Saturday's decider and the many star-studded line-ups made up of predominantly singles players that perished along the way. And in a weird sense of irony, Ebden now owns something Djokovic does not: Olympic gold. That is, at least for 24 hours. Djokovic will battle familiar foe Carlos Alcaraz for the men's singles title on Sunday evening.
Ebden's doubles triumph is the latest chapter in what's shaping as a career year. He won the Australian Open in January, alongside Rohan Bopanna, to become the No. 1-ranked doubles player in the world at age 36. That same team also made the semifinals at the French Open two months before the Olympics.
For Peers, an Australian Open doubles champion (2017) in his own right, he adds gold to the mixed doubles bronze medal he won with Ashleigh Barty in Tokyo three years ago. He also joins Woodbridge and Woodforde as Australia's only two-time Olympic medallists in tennis, not that he can comprehend it.
"It's an absolute honour," Peers said in disbelief. "Anytime we get mentioned along with same breath as those two, they paved the way for us."