*Massu beats Fish, China takes women's doubles gold*
----------------------------------------------------

ATHENS, Greece (Ticker) - Tennis fans in Chile may declare this
a national holiday.  Nicolas Massu could certainly use one.

Massu picked up his second tennis gold medal in less than 24
hours - the first Olympic golds for his country - when he
outlasted American Mardy Fish, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in a
four-hour battle Sunday.

Massu already had won the men's doubles gold about 21 hours
earlier, pairing with Fernando Gonzalez to fight off Germany's
Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler in a five-set thriller that
lasted 3:40.

The singles gold medal capped Chile's dominance of the United
States in men's tennis this week.  The Chileans won six of seven
matches, with Gonzalez losing to Fish in the semifinals.

There were doubts that Massu would even finish Sunday's match
due to cramps in his left leg.  He was warned for taking too
much time between points in the third set and needed a massage
from the trainer before the fourth set began.

Massu broke Fish's serve twice in the fifth set, including at
2-2.  He won the match when Fish hit a wide service return.

Fish had the edge in service aces with 23 to Massu's 10 but
committed 105 unforced errors to Massu's 78.  Massu won 153
points, two more than Fish.

In women's doubles, the team of Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won
China's first tennis gold medal in a surprise over second seeds
Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

The Chinese pair began this tournament by ousting defending gold
medalist Venus Williams and substitute partner Chanda Rubin,
who filled in for Venus' injured sister, Serena.

"We just did our best," Li said.  "We didn't think too much
about whether we could get (the gold) or not, just concentrate
on what we were doing."

Li and Sun may get to defend their title at home as Beijing
hosts the next Summer Olympics in 2008.

Martinez collected her third Olympic medal in this event,
winning silver in 1992 at Barcelona and bronze in 1996 at
Atlanta with Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario.

st 08-22-04 19:16 et