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Iga Swiatek has been the monster of Roland Garros for the past five years. The Olympics proved to be a different challenge.
Playing on the same surface where she has won four French open titles since 2020, Swiatek was stunned by China’s Zheng Qinwen 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals of the women’s evening draw, bouncing back from the heavy favorite to take gold.
Swiatek will now face the loser of the other semi-final match between Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova and Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the bronze medal match.
Zheng was hardly a standout contender as the No. 7 player in the WTA rankings, but the 21-year-old was a heavy underdog with an 0-6 record against Swiatek. She was also facing a player who had won the French Open at the same stage only two months ago, with an overall record of 32-2 in Paris. And she had to survive match point in her previous match against American Anna Navarro to reach the quarter-finals.
It should have been relatively simple for Swiatek, who was competing for her gold on her best surface. She ended up making things difficult.
Swiatek broke Zheng on her first chance in the first set, but then started making a number of uncharacteristic errors. Zheng won six straight games to take the set, with Swiatek visibly frustrated as he made 16 unforeseen errors.
The post regrouped from there, winning the first four games of the second set to restore order. And then the errors came back. Zheng broke it three times in a row, again, and took advantage of 20 more unforced errors in the second set. As Swiatek’s return landed long on match point, Zheng collapsed on the court as if she had just won a tournament.
At least she made history. Zheng is now the first Chinese tennis player to reach the final of the Olympics, and she is already guaranteed to be the first medalist in the country’s history.
(TagStotranslate) Iga Swiatek
