Paris 2024 Olympics: Zheng Qinwen stuns Iga Swiatek with masterclass display to reach women’s singles final
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Updated 01/08/2024 at 16:16 GMT+1
Zheng Qinwen shocked Iga Swiatek 6-2 7-5 to advance to the 2024 Olympic final in Paris. Zheng is six places behind Swiatek in the world rankings and was knocked out of the third round at Roland-Garros earlier this year, while Swiatek became French Open champion for the fourth time, but the Chinese player fully deserved her straight-sets win against the favourite this time.
Zheng says she could play for ‘three hours more’ after beating Swiatek
Video credit: TNT Sports
Zheng Qinwen ripped up the script to dispatch French Open champion Iga Swiatek and will face either Donna Vekic or Anna Schmiedlova in the Olympic Games final.
The reigning queen of Roland-Garros, Swiatek was the hot favourite returning to Paris less than two months after claiming her fourth French Open crown in five years.
Meanwhile Zheng was dumped out in the third round by unseeded Elina Avanesyan, but the world No. 7 showed that history was meaningless with a dominant first set in the Olympic semi-final on Thursday.
After an equal opening, Zheng won four games on the spin against a shadow of the usual Swiatek, whose game was riddled with unforced errors in a departure from the previous theme of this pair's meetings.
With the world No. 1 missing routine shots, Zheng was ruthless in closing out the first set, but hit trouble when Swiatek came out swinging and raced into a 4-0 lead in the second.
However, Zheng finally found her feet powered by a booming serve after Swiatek gifted a break back, and the Chinese player stormed back to 4-4.
Swiatek looked burdened by pressure, despite having far more experience than her opponent - whose best result at a major was reaching this year's Australian Open final.
Poland's Swiatek continued to serve up key mistakes in the most crucial of moments. Despite rescuing a break point at 6-5 down with a superb return, when Zheng then held firm to reach deuce a visibly deflated Swiatek appeared to know the game, set and match were up. She missed a return to lose the match.
Zheng: I could've carried on playing for hours
Zheng becomes the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic singles tennis final on a sensational day which saw China extend its lead at the top of the medal table with two more golds.
It was Swiatek's first loss at Roland-Garros since 2021. She will at least have the chance to play for bronze against the other losing semi-finalist, but the day belonged to Zheng who told Eurosport she had played through fatigue to secure the win.
She said: "I feel more than just happy, happy's not enough to describe my emotions right now. Every match I have been through a lot of pressure, I really want to get a medal for my country and now I am there.
"To beat Iga in this stage is absolutely not easy, I've had a of lot matches against Iga, I'm always the one who misses more than her and I'm always the one to have more winners than her but I always lose the match.
"So today I just had to be more patient than Iga, if she wants to get that match she has to make winners all the time and it's on clay, it's not easy, that's my gameplan.
"I'm out of sleep, I'm super-tired, my body is in a limit but I don't know why in this tournament I have this extra energy hold me up. Today even though I'm tired I'm able to push, even now if you ask me to play three hours more for my country I can do it again."
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
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