SYDNEY, Sept 26 (Reuters) – She ended up with a bronze medal, not the gold she had hoped for but Monica Seles was still all smiles on Tuesday.
Seles beat Australian teenager Jelena Dokic 6-1 6-4 in only 59 minutes in the third-place playoff for the women’s singles at the Olympic Games and said the win made up for some of the disappointment of her semi-final loss to United States teammate Venus Williams.
“I’m just happy that I won a medal,” said the Yugoslavia-born former world number one. “I’ve never had a medal in my life before and I’m really excited that I’ll be coming back for the medal ceremony tomorrow.”
Seles will be presented with her medal after Wednesday’s women’s singles final between Williams and Russia’s Elena Dementieva.
“I really didn’t want to play today — I was really down,” she said. “But you can’t always get the gold. Bronze is good.”
Dokic, whose controversial father Damir did not attend her matches here, said she had been happy with her performances in her first Olympic Games despite missing out on a medal.
“It’s been a great experience and something I can learn from,” she said.
“I thought Monica played really well today. She served well, was hitting the lines and hardly gave me anything.”