Saturday, August 3, 2024

The Queen's golden era

Today, Zheng Qinwen, known by many fans as "Queenwen," did something that no other Chinese player has ever done before--she won an Olympic gold medal in tennis. Zheng defeated Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 in the final, and--as well as the Chinese star played--she had considerable help from her opponent, whose usually excellent serve failed her again and again. The occasion apparently got to Vekic, who has seen her career take a sudden surge since she decided to delay her retirement from the tour.

Donna Vekic, however, also made history, becoming the first Croatian player to win an Olympic medal in tennis.

Zheng's Olympic run was memorable: She put an end to 2016 silver medal winner Angie Kerber's career in the quarterfinals, when she defeated her 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 in a tense and thrilling match in which Kerber--a fighter to the end--saved three match points. Then, in the semifinals, she defeated four-time French Open champion and overwhelming Olympic gold medal favorite Iga Swiatek. Swiatek would go on to win the bronze medal by defeating a very on-fire Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the bronze medal match. Swiatek is the first tennis player from Poland to win an Olympic medal.

Katerina Siniakova, with partner Tomas Machac, won the gold medal in mixed doubles yesterday. Siniakova also won a gold medal--in women's doubles--at the 2020 Olympic Games; her partner at that event was Barbora Krejcikova. 

Winning silver were Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen. Zhang entered the tournament with Zheng Qinwen as his partner, but she withdrew after playing a series of grueling singles matches. It so happened that Wang was still in Paris, so she an Zhang became a team and wound up on the podium. The bronze medal was won by Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

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