Thursday, August 1, 2024

Zheng and Vekic advance to Olympic final

World number 1 Iga Swiatek is widely acknowledged as the Queen of Roland Garros. She has won the French Open four times, and having the Olympic Games take place in Paris certainly seemed like the best imaginable situation for her to add a gold medal to her impressive collection of hardware.

But that scenario, which looked almost perfect, wasn't. An error-prone Swiatek faced off today against an on-fire Zheng Qinwen, who defeated the favorite in straight sets. Prior to playing their Olympic semifinal, Zheng was 0-6 against Swiatek. The Chinese star had also played consecutive three-hour matches, the second of which was a wild and thrilling contest against 2016 silver medal winner Angie Kerber.

But having the cards stacked against her didn't stop Zheng, who defeated Swiatek 6-2, 7-5, and made only 13 unforced errors, to Swiatek's 36. Zheng was aggressive, and she was accurate. It clearly wasn't the top seed's day, but that shouldn't take away from her opponent's performance.

In the other semifinal, Donna Vekic brought Anna Karolina Schmiedlova's brilliant run to an end. Schmiedlova had taken out the likes of Katie Boulter, Bia Haddad Maia, and both Wimbledon finalists--Jasmine Paolini and champion Barbora Krejcikova. Ranked number 67 in the world, Schmiedlova didn't exactly "pull a Puig," but she came close. Vekic, who had escaped Marta Kostyuk in a thrilling quarterfinal, had plenty of steam left to defeat Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-0. 

This is truly the summer of Donna Vekic. After dealing with injuries and surgeries, the Croatian player had considered retiring not that long ago, but she hung in, and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, and now here she is, competing for Olympic gold.

Schmiedlova and Swiatek will compete tomorrow for the bronze medal. Zheng and Vekic will compete for the gold medal on Saturday.

Paths to the final:

Zheng Qinwen (6)

round 1--def. Sara Errani
round 2--def. Arantxa Rus
round 3--def. Emma Navarro (11)
quarterfinals--def. Angie Kerber
semifinals--def. Iga Swiatek (1)

Donna Vekic (13)

round 1--def. Lucia Bronzetti
round 2--def. Bianca Andreescu
round 3--def. Coco Gauff (2)
quarterfinals--def. Marta Kostyuk (12)
semifinals--def. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova

Meanwhile, in doubles, defending champions and 2nd seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova were upset in the quarterfinals by Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.

Here is the doubles semifinal draw:

Karolina Muchova/Linda Noskova vs. Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini (3)
Cristina Bucsa/Sara Sorribes Tormo 8) vs. Mirra Andreeva/Diana Shnaider

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