PARIS (AP) — Matt Ebden’s 2024 Olympic bid began with his first singles match in more than two years — a 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Novak Djokovic as a reserve after other players withdrew from that event. A week later, Ebden, back in his element as a doubles player, will leave France with his partner John Peers as gold medalists.

Ebden and Peers won Australia’s second tennis gold medal in Summer Games history on Saturday, beating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-8 in a match tie-break in the men’s doubles final. Olympic doubles use a top-10, two-set tie-break instead of the traditional third set.

“I knew this was going to come up,” Ebden said when asked how the Summer Games started. “I thought about it last night. I was actually imagining an Instagram post: ‘How it started; how it’s going.’ … Swipe right and there’s a gold medal photo.”

Ebden and Peers were a set and 4–2 down in the second set before Ram broke their serve to start the comeback. The tennis gold came after the men’s doubles gold won for Australia by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in Atlanta in 1996.

“It’s crazy. It’s more than a dream. Growing up, I never even dreamed of winning a gold medal,” Ebden said. “I’ve had great success on the doubles court the last few years. It gave me a lot of belief and confidence coming here.”

Matthew Ebden and John Peers of Australia celebrate with their children after defeating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States in the men’s doubles gold medal match at the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Manu Fernandez

He’s a 36-year-old doubles specialist who is ranked No. 1 at the event and has won two Slam men’s doubles titles and one mixed Slam title. Singles? Until he faced Djokovic — “My main goal in that match was just to stay injury-free,” Ebden joked on Saturday — he hadn’t competed in a tour-level, main-draw singles match since June 2022.

Djokovic thinks the rules need to be changed to prevent someone like Ebden from taking part in singles at the Summer Games.

Ebden has not even been ranked in the singles since the week of May 29, 2023, when he was ranked 970. However, he was in Paris to compete in the men’s doubles, which allowed him to compete in the singles event when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark withdrew with a wrist injury.

When Saturday’s game ended, Peers and Ebden’s children came out of the stands to hug their father, who then put a replica gold medal around his son’s neck and then threw it in the air and caught it.

Peers, who won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Ash Barty at the Tokyo Games three years ago, said her eldest daughter had told her she wanted a gold medal. Now she can bring it to school for show and tell.

“They’ll keep talking about this until they’re 100,” Peers said.

Peers is ranked No. 2 in doubles and has one Grand Slam title in men’s doubles (he won by defeating twins Bob and Mike Bryan in the 2017 Australian Open final) and one mixed doubles title.

Ram, 40, of Indiana, was attempting to become the oldest player to win a gold medal in Olympic tennis — men’s or women’s, singles or doubles — since the sport returned to the Summer Games in 1988.

He and Krajicek, 34, who lives in Florida, were trying to become the third U.S. duo to win a men’s doubles gold medal. The Bryans’ last was in London in 2012. The brothers were in the stands Saturday — Bob is the nation’s men’s tennis coach in Paris and Mike serves as his hitting partner and helps coach the doubles.

However, Ram and Krajicek will return home with the silver medal after eliminating Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

Later Saturday, another American duo, Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, defeated Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 to win the bronze medal. Machac and Katerina Siniakova won gold in the mixed doubles on Friday night.

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Associated Press writer Tom Nouvian contributed to this report.

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