Qinwen Zheng of China celebrates after profitable her match towards Iga Swiatek of Poland.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
Zheng Qinwen ended Iga Swiatek’s 25-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros on Thursday to turn out to be the primary Chinese language participant to achieve an Olympic Video games singles last as Carlos Alcaraz marched nearer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev, nonetheless, crashed out, shedding his quarter-final to a fired-up Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.
Seventh-ranked Zheng triumphed 6-2, 7-5 over world primary Swiatek and can face both Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia within the gold medal match.
“I really feel extra than simply completely happy — completely happy is not sufficient to explain how I really feel,” stated Zheng, who had performed back-to-back three-hour matches to make the semi-final.
“For those who ask me to play one other three hours for my nation, I might. It was a tremendous match. To beat Iga just isn’t simple.”
Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, went into the match at a sweltering Court docket Philippe Chatrier having not misplaced in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old had additionally defeated Zheng in all of their six earlier conferences.
Nonetheless, she was hit off the court docket by the highly effective 21-year-old Australian Open finalist who broke the Pole 3 times within the opening set.
Swiatek appeared restored by a 10-minute break and shortly stretched out to a 4-0 lead within the second set earlier than Zheng battled again, retrieving each breaks for 4-4.
The Chinese language star broke once more for a 6-5 lead towards the error-plagued Swiatek and claimed victory within the subsequent sport.
By making the ultimate, Zheng is the primary Chinese language man or girl to achieve an Olympic singles gold medal match, bettering the run of Li Na who completed fourth within the girls’s occasion at Beijing in 2008.
China’s solely Olympics tennis gold got here due to Li Ting and Solar Tiantian within the girls’s doubles at Athens in 2004.
‘Concerning the combat’
Alcaraz, again at Roland Garros the place he gained a maiden French Open in June, turned the youngest Olympic semi-finalist since Djokovic in 2008.
The second seed noticed off Thirteenth-ranked Tommy Paul of the USA 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) after recovering from a break down within the second set and saving a set level within the tie-break.
“It is all concerning the combat,” stated Alcaraz, who was enjoying the day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss in what was most likely the veteran’s last look at Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old will face both Casper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassime for a spot within the last.
Champion Zverev out
Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti shocked Zverev 7-5, 7-5 on the again of 20 winners because the Sixteenth-ranked Italian continued his storming Olympics run.
The 22-year-old was enjoying a tour last in Umag in Croatia on Saturday night time and solely arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, simply hours earlier than his first-round conflict.
Musetti has made the semi-finals with out dropping a set as he turned the primary Italian man to achieve the singles semi-finals since tennis returned to the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.
The Italian will face both high seed Djokovic, who beat him within the Wimbledon semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a spot within the gold medal match.
Djokovic, nonetheless in search of an elusive Olympic gold medal so as to add to his 24 Grand Slam titles, takes on Tsitsipas on the identical court docket the place in 2021 he battled again from two units right down to defeat the Greek within the French Open last.
The Serb has coasted via the primary three rounds in Paris and will probably be buoyed by his 11-2 head-to-head file towards Tsitsipas.
That run additionally included victory within the last of the 2023 Australian Open last whereas Tsitsipas’s final win over the Djokovic got here again in 2019.
Paul will return to the courts later Thursday when he groups up with Taylor Fritz in a males’s doubles quarter-final which may mark the top of Andy Murray’s profession.
Murray and Dan Evans will face the US third seeds for a spot within the semi-finals.
Murray, a former world primary and three-time Grand Slam singles champion, has already introduced his intention to retire after the Olympics.
The 37-year-old and Evans have endured a roller-coaster Olympics up to now, saving seven match factors over two rounds.
