updated 5:17 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won China’s first Olympic tennis medal ever by beating Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday for the doubles gold.

The eighth-seeded Chinese pair hadn’t won a title all year, and ended a four-match losing streak by eliminating 2000 gold medalist Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin in the opening round.

In the final match of the Olympic tennis tournament later Sunday, unseeded Mardy Fish of the United States faced No. 10 Nicolas Massu for the men’s singles gold.

The doubles silver is Martinez’s third Olympic medal — but none is gold. She paired with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to win the silver in 1992 and the bronze in 1996.

Martinez and Ruano Pascual had played just one tournament together before the Olympics, yet they were seeded second.

On Saturday, No. 7 Paola Suarez and Patricia Tarabini of Argentina beat No. 5 Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-3, 6-3 for the doubles bronze. Suarez and Ruano Pascual have won six Grand Slam doubles titles as a team.

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It’s been quite a summer for Chinese tennis. At the French Open in May, Zheng Jie became the first Chinese woman to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament.

Sunday’s final was an even bigger moment for the Chinese, but it was also a sloppy match — with nine service breaks combined, including in the last two games. The match ended with Ruano Pascual missing a forehand and then a backhand to get broken for the fourth time.

The Chinese broke Martinez for a 5-3 edge in the opening set, then Sun served it out, avoiding a break point set up by her double-fault. On set point, Li ended an 11-stroke exchange with a volley winner off Martinez’s forehand.

That was part of a five-game run that gave the Chinese a 2-0 lead in the second set. The Spanish duo broke back to 2-2 on Li’s double-fault, but Ruano Pascual lost her serve in the next game by double-faulting and making three forehand errors.

The Chinese then broke Martinez to go up 5-2, but Li was broken while serving for the match. One last poor service game by Ruano Pascual ended it.

While Massu already collected a gold in doubles, and his teammate Fernando Gonzalez earned the singles bronze for Chile, Fish is the only U.S. tennis player leaving Athens with any hardware.

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Just two weeks ago, the U.S. squad appeared stacked, with four past No. 1s and Slam champions slated to play singles: Roddick, the Williams sisters and Jennifer Capriati. The roster also included Martina Navratilova, plus the top-seeded men’s doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan.

But Capriati and Serena Williams pulled out with injuries after the deadline for replacing them on the roster. Serena informed the U.S. Tennis Association a few hours before the team flew to Greece.

Then, all in one day, Roddick, Venus Williams, Chanda Rubin, Lisa Raymond and the Bryan twins lost. Navratilova was knocked out in the doubles quarterfinals 24 hours later, and Taylor Dent lost to Gonzalez in the singles bronze match Saturday.

Massu didn’t leave the tennis complex until the wee hours of Sunday morning after pairing with Gonzalez to win Chile’s first gold medal in Olympic history. They beat Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 in the men’s doubles final, which ended at 2:39 a.m.

That was followed by the medal ceremony, a news conference, doping control and a massage for Massu.

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