Step back in time: Olympics 1988 - Women's doubles

A pretty weak field of players represented their country in doubles compared to todays attendance at the olympics. The top seed team was Pam Shriver & Zina Garrison (USA) who got a first round bye as their second seed opponents on the other side of the draw in terms of Steffi Graf and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch from Germany. The byes already put these two teams into the quarterfinals, only one match away from a medal.
Third seed Czech pairing Helena Sukova and Jana Novotna overcame the korean double of Kim and Lee in first round to reach the quarters, whilst that year's Roland Garros runner-up Natasha Zvereva teamed up with Larissa Savchenko for the USR as the fourth seeds. They easily overcame a mexican pairing to reach the quarters.

Shriver and Garrison came to action in the quarters, having only played one event together, the Canadian Open 1988 where they lost in the finals. The french pairing of Isabelle Demongeot and Nathalie Tauziat only gave them a hard time in the opening set, as Shriver/Garrison advanced 7:5 6:2.
Sukova and Novotna easily beat Japan's Inoue and Okamoto to advance to the semis, whilst Graf and Kohde-Kilsch had to suprass the canadian pairing of Carling Basset-Seguso and Jill Hetherington in three sets.
To that date, Graf and Kohde-Kilsch have only teamed up in national events such as the Fed-Cup or now the olympics and had an unbeaten record of 3 wins and no loss, including the Fed-Cup title run 1987 against the USA.

The 4th seeded Zvereva and Savchenko fell to the aussie combination of Elisabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull, securing Australia an important medal in tennis-competition.

The Semis were straight set affairs with Shriver and Garrison having trouble with their Australian opponents in both sets, but they advanced 7:6 (4) and 6:4.
Graf and Kohde-Kilsch's run finally came to an end when Sukova and Novotna beat them 7:5 6:3.

The final was a very close and high-class affair, that the american team won in a dramatic third set 4:6 6:2 10:8.
Sukova and Novotna came close to winning gold but they would get further chances at the next two olympics. It was the only title that Shriver and Garrison won together.
Germany and Australia took home the bronze medals.