The spectators told Monica Puig they believed she could win Puerto Ricos first Olympic gold medal in any sport, providing a soundtrack of Si se puede! -- Yes, we can! -- during the Rio de Janeiro Games womens tennis final.She could. And she did.The unseeded and unheralded Puig capped her run of upsets with the biggest one of all Saturday, overpowering No. 2 Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 to become the Olympic champion.I did hear everybody saying, Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! I kept repeating it inside myself: Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Puig said. They really helped me believe and just showed me they were there for me, whether I was going to win or lose.Puigs father told her he believed, too, emailing the lyrics to the Puerto Rican national anthem a day earlier, just in case they would come in handy. And so, as the strains of that song echoed around an Olympic arena for the first time, and Puerto Ricos red-white-and-blue flag was raised to the highest level during a medal ceremony for the first time, Puig remembered what Dad had written.She recognized plenty of the words as fans belted them out. She just couldnt join in the joyous chorus, for a simple reason: too many tears.If I wouldve stopped crying, I probably would have started singing, Puig said afterward, smiling at the thought. But I couldnt. I was choking up the whole time.A 22-year-old born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and now based in Florida, Puig is also the first woman representing her country to earn a medal of any color. When she finished a tense closing game --saving six break points and converting her fourth match point --she flung away her racket and went over to collect a flag she paraded across the court.I couldnt really believe what just happened, she said. It was such an amazing moment.Gigi Fernandez, who is Puerto Rican, won two Olympic womens doubles gold medals in tennis, but did so while representing the United States.Im particularly happy for Puerto Rico, Fernandez said in a telephone interview from Connecticut. All the hurt that people felt, all the anger people felt because I played for the U.S., I couldnt be happier.Puig had shown promise in the past, reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon as a teen in 2013, but she hasnt been that far again at any major. Also notable about Puig: She is the first unseeded woman to win the singles title since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.Ranked 34th, she added her surprising win over Kerber -- a German who won the Australian Open and was the Wimbledon runner-up this year --to those she picked up in Brazil against two other past major title winners, Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova.Earlier Saturday, Kvitova earned the bronze for the Czech Republic by beating Madison Keys of the United States 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Kvitova called her medal one of the best things that happened in my career, definitely.Clearly, Puig felt the same. And she played attacking tennis full of powerful shots that seemed to rattle the counter-punching Kerber. Puig smacked a down-the-line backhand--her 18th winner to that point, 10 more than Kerber -- for a break that gave her the opening set.During the ensuing changeover, Kerber was visited by a trainer, standing on the sideline while her lower back was massaged and manipulated, before heading to the locker room for a medical timeout. Kerber said later that bothered her from the outset, but it wasnt why she lost.She played her best tennis and one of her best matches in her career, for sure, Kerber said. I tried everything. Clearance Nike Shoes . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. Fake Nike Shoes .com) - Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer were easy first-round winners Tuesday at the Australian Open. https://www.fakenikeshoeswholesale.com/ . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Discount Nike Shoes .Y. -- Leading 3-0 with only 11:25 left, the Colorado Avalanche committed a seemingly meaningless penalty to give the New York Islanders a power play. Black Friday Nike Shoes . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Sequel fatigue might be a problem for Hollywood studios, but not for Andy Murray. This semifinal weekend in Glasgow, Murray will be hoping to move closer to a remake of last years buddy movie -- winning the Davis Cup alongside his brother?Jamie?and friends.Most players are content with a sole Davis Cup triumph -- Roger Federer is in that category -- but once hasnt sated Murrays ambitions: We want to do it again.In Murrays own analysis, this has already been the finest year of his tennis life to date, even if his greatest accomplishments in 2016 havent been wholly original storylines. But why should he care when he has been turning in such great performances, and winning some of the biggest prizes?Becoming the Wimbledon champion for a second occasion this year might not have had quite the same cathartic feel or epic quality as his first victory in 2013, but it was compelling nonetheless, especially as it was his first Grand Slam title anywhere for three years. Retaining the Olympic title was hardly any less enjoyable than when he did so the first time -- no man or woman had previously won two successive singles gold medals.And dont imagine for one moment that last Novembers Davis Cup triumph -- set, of all the places, in a hangar on the outskirts of Ghent -- means that he is now content to coast in this competition. Right from the start of the Davis Cup year, before the first-round tie against Japan, he said: Why cant we win this again? Why not?You can have more than one goal during the year, he told reporters after joining up with the GB team in Glasgow. At the end of last year, Davis Cup -- for all of us -- was a priority. But I dont think, at the beginning of the year, we expected to win the event.As you get closer and closer, you want to make the most of the opportunity -- and we want to ddo it again.dddddddddddd I want to win all the events I can.I took a few days off after New York and came here and have been practising since Sunday. I get a little break after Im finished here, so one more big push this weekend.Murray is quite different to Federer, who since winning the Davis Cup for the first time in 2014, when Switzerland defeated France in Lille, has never aspired to being the champion once again. As he once observed: My idea was never to win it twice, the idea was to win it once.On another occasion, the Swiss described playing in the competition as a heavy burden; in the past two years, Federers only appearance was in last Septembers World Group playoff against Holland when he intervened to prevent his country from being relegated into the zonal divisions.Novak Djokovic has also only won the Davis Cup once, when Serbia defeated France in the 2010 final, though he has made another unsuccessful appearance in a final, against the Czech Republic in 2013.While Murray has a mere three Grand Slams, which leaves him a few behind Federer, who has 17, and Djokovic, on 12, the Briton has out-performed his Swiss and Serbian rivals when representing his country.Neither of them have even one Olympic singles gold medal, while Murray has two. And now, in this year of sequels for Murray, he seeks another remake, one which would allow him to surpass Federer and Djokovic in another competition.Should Britain go through, and France also progress, the final would be played on the other side of the Channel. But the movie could be freshened up with a home final, too, if Britain end up playing Croatia. Its a safe bet that Murray would be highly motivated either way. ' ' '