As a measure of the respect with which the nation’s newest gold medallists Matt Ebden and John Peers are held in Australian tennis, the reaction to their stunning Olympic triumph at Roland Garros on Saturday speaks volumes of their character.

Similarly to their careers as a whole, Ebden and Peers overcame adversity and showed great poise when it mattered most to defeat Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek 6-7 (6) 7-6 (1) (10-8) in a gripping gold medal playoff on Court Philippe-Chatrier in Paris.

Both have won Australian Open doubles titles. Ebden is a Wimbledon doubles champion. Peers, who partnered Ash Barty to a bronze medal in Tokyo three years ago, peaked at a ranking of No.2 in doubles, while Ebden reached the pinnacle as world No.1 in February.

But as important as those achievements are, the significance of winning an Olympic gold medal for Australia is unparalleled according to doubles greats Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, who are the only other tennis players to win gold for the nation.

Both Ebden and Peers have overcome either significant injuries, form dips or major disappointments during their careers and played this final with “their backs against the wall the whole time” against a high-class combination, Peers said.

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Trailing a set and a service break, the faith they have in each other, along with their expertise, saw them produce a magnificent comeback.

“It was not looking good. We were losing for sure, but we kept believing, kept fighting, kept hanging strong,” Ebden said.

“The crowd lifted us big time when we got the break back. (John) played an amazing super tie-break and somehow we are gold medallists. It’s more than a dream.”

It is a triumph being celebrated by their playing peers and also the rank-and-file of Australian tennis with good reason.

The willingness of both Ebden and Peers to play for Australia when called upon, but also to hold their heads high and applaud and help others when overlooked for national duties, has enhanced their standing among peers.

They embody the spirit of mateship and in the moments after the pair joined “the Wooodies” as gold medallists, the cameras panned to the raucous celebrations in the support box.

Peers’s wife Danielle, a former professional golfer, was bouncing around with their kids. So, too, Ebden’s wife Kim and their boy Harvey, who are neighbours of the Peers family in Perth.

Nearby Australia’s Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, who has entrusted both with national honours over the past decade, had his arms aloft saluting the pair’s greatest moment on a court.

Western Australian Jaymon Crabb, a former tour player who holds a senior role with the Davis Cup team, pumped his fists in triumph as well.

Alex de Minaur, who has been Australia’s standard bearer since Ash Barty’s retirement, endured a difficult Olympics after arriving in Paris with a hip injury but posted his joy and pride for the combination on social media.

Watching from home, another former teammate John Millman declared; “How bloody good.”

Woodbridge, who partnered Mark Woodforde to a doubles gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, was commentating on the match and left a voicemail for Peers praising the pair.

“It’s Teddy. Unbelievable. Congratulations you guys,” he said on the call.

“Lleyton said to me last night you have been unbelievably disciplined and professional in the lead-up to this and how you have played all tournament and to call that is one of my broadcast highlights, so I’m hoping I get the chance to catch up with you later tonight.

“That is an unbelievable performance. Nothing in your career will be any bigger than the moment you are about to have in having that gold medal around your neck. Enjoy. I look forward to catching up to celebrate.”

Woodforde, who was on site as well in his role with the International Tennis Federation, told Fox Sports he was delighted the combination’s family witnessed the triumph.

“It was so moving to see them reach up and have their kids come on to the court,” he said.

“Those are the memories where I’m not sure winning grand slams and ATP events, they just don’t reach those same highs.”

A CROWING MOMENT IN CAREERS OF HIGHS AND LOWS

As Matt Ebden considers his gold medal, he might take a look at a freckle on his knee that is a symbol of his resilience.

The South African-born right-hander, who moved to Perth with his family as a 12-year-old, was always an exceptional athlete whose all-court game and superb court coverage made him a tricky proposition for rivals, particularly on slicker surfaces.

But the Western Australian, who enjoyed a sound singles career which included a run to the 4th Rd at Indian Wells and a 3rd Rd appearance at Wimbledon and a peak ranking of 39, was struggling to walk in his late 20s.

The premature death of his coach and mentor Darren Tandy in Perth devastated him. And an injury which saw him limp from Melbourne Park during the Australian Open in 2016 proved problematic as well.

Ebden’s foot alignment was slightly off by virtue of an old ankle injury, which was causing the pain in the IT Band and the issue with his knee, but it took the surgeon who operated on former West Coast star Nic Naitanui to identify the cause of a complaint that crippled him.

“It was really frustrating for a couple of months and kind of depressing. You go through those moments where, it is not depression, but I understand it now as circumstantial unhappiness,” he said.

“I kept thinking, ‘I will go next week. I’ll go the week after’, but at some point you actually have to go and get started.”

In an interview with this journalist in Tokyo shortly before he reached his highest singles ranking, he said it was not until practising with Roger Federer prior to the Hopman Cup in 2017 that he felt confident he would be able to make a comeback to tennis.

Peers, meanwhile, was born into a tennis family. His mother Elizabeth Little won rounds at the Australian Open and also played Wimbledon and the US Open, where she was a doubles quarterfinalist in 1981.

His sister Sally Peers claimed a doubles gold and a singles silver medal in the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and won a round at the US Open that year before falling to Belgian great Kim Clijsters.

The gold medallist was never the best of his age in Victoria and pursued a college scholarship in the United States, which sharpened his natural doubles instincts before his grand slam debut at Wimbledon in 2013.

He partnered Jamie Murray to doubles finals in 2015 at Wimbledon and the US Open but, amid some pressure from English press and elsewhere about his ability to deliver in critical moments, the combination disbanded.

But Hewitt liked what he had seen in Peers, who he partnered against the legendary Bryan brothers in a massive Davis Cup tie in 2016.

“It has been great to be able to get confidence and understanding in how to perform in big matches and just get more experience playing in those situations. It has been great to be able to play under Lleyton in Davis Cup,” Peers said as he built his career.

The Melburnian proved the doubters wrong when clinching the Australian Open doubles crown with Henri Kontinen in 2017 and now he is an Olympic gold medallist as well.

As he said after their triumph; “I guess it is not about how you start. It’s how you finish.”

GOLDEN PAIR CONQUER A CRACKERJACK FIELD

To underline just how brilliant a performance this was from Peers and Ebden, one needs only assess the depth of the draw.

This Olympics tournament proved a triumph for the doubles specialists over the singles stars at a time where there is conjecture about the future of the discipline.

The pursuit of gold in the Olympics has always enticed the best men to play doubles, which is a rarer occurrence on the regular tour, though Indian Wells is tends to be an exception.

Federer treasures his Olympics gold medal, claimed in doubles alongside Stan Wawrinka. And Rafael Nadal clinched one alongside Marc Lopez in Brazil in 2016.

The legendary Spaniard was among the singles players to have a crack in Paris when partnering with four-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz as a superstar combination, but they could not match the doubles nous of Ram and Krajicek in a quarterfinal.

Bronze medallists Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, who the Australian combination defeated in the semi-finals, are both outstanding performers in singles ranked 12 and 13 respectively.

Elsewhere, dual-Olympic gold medallist Andy Murray bid farewell to tennis alongside Dan Evans and de Minaur raced the clock to play in Paris after injuring himself at Wimbledon and stepped out with Alexei Popyrin, Australia’s best-performed singles player this Games.

Stefanos Tsitsipas partnered his brother. Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was beaten in a bronze-medal playoff in singles, partnered former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic. And even Daniil Medvedev, who views the discipline with distrust, had a crack as well.

Yet none of those singles stars ultimately had quick enough hands, or the precision and consistency of serving, the creativity on return nor overall doubles craft to match the veteran Australians or their American rivals this week.

Doubles can be a form of Russian roulette, particularly when decided by a match tie-break. A fluke of fortune can change the outcome, as Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson found when edged in heartbreaking circumstances in the Wimbledon final last month.

But playing the percentages is also important and can minimise the impact of the flukes. Peers and Ebden did this to near perfection in an Olympics campaign that started and ended with success in tiebreakers.

The pair ultimately won five of the six they found themselves in, with the only exception coming against Ram and Krajicek in the opening set of the gold medal playoff.

This was a clutch performance and they delivered when it mattered the most. And the Americans they defeated in both the semi-finals and finals were full of praise for them.

Fritz said the Australian combination was “very good at is just keeping you guessing on where they’re going at net and when you don’t go to the right spot, a lot of times they’ll punish you with the volleys.”

Ram and Krajicek, who ended the run of Alcaraz and Nadal in comprehensive fashion in the quarterfinals, said the challenge provided by a specialist doubles pairing in the Australians was far harder.

“I think when we played that quarterfinal match, it was a lot of the occasion in the moment,” Ram said.

“But for me, you have two guys on the other side of the net that play doubles for a living and do it at a super high level, that’s as tough as it’s going to get. And today was that.

“And we knew that was going to be the challenge for sure, more so than sort of the singles players who are great players, no doubt, but they don’t play doubles all the time. And I think the level is just a bit different.

“Today was that challenge and we knew we had to rise to it if we wanted to win and unfortunately didn’t quite get the job done when it mattered. But it was a good battle nonetheless.”

A CELEBRATION TO REMEMBER

As they celebrated on the world’s clay court mecca with their families, both Peers and Ebden touched on the significance of the win.

Having started the Olympics when thrashed by Novak Djokovic – the Western Australian had not played a singles match in more than two years but accepted the offer as an alternate – he finishes the week with a gold medal around his neck.

Ebden is forever grateful that his family decided to move to the lucky country and also with how his “adopted country” embraced him.

“I was actually thinking of an Instagram post; how it started, how it’s going. It’s trippy. I didn’t even dream of winning a gold medal,” he said.

“Winnings slams, winning Wimbledon, we’ve been into the Davis Cup finals the last couple of years …. but I mean, the Olympics? Gold? Really? It only comes around once every four years and even just to play it is ridiculous. To win a gold medal, I think it’s like folklore. It’s beyond me. Some miracle work has happened and somehow we’ve now got a gold medal.”

As Peers was delivering in Paris, friends and family members who have long-admired how dedicated he has been to his career were celebrating at house parties around Melbourne.

A measured and quietly-spoken man, he was simply delighted to be recognised alongside Woodbridge and Woodforde.

“It’s an absolute honour. Anytime we get mentioned along with same breath as those two, they paved the way for us,” said Peers.