Tennis at the Paris 2024 Olympics is rapidly drawing to a close with the women’s singles semi-finals already decided: Poland’s top seed Iga Swiatek will face China’s sixth seed Chen Qingwen, while Croatia’s Donna Vekic will face Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Szumidlova in the other group.
Olympic tennis is like a Grand Slam final, except instead of simply going home as in a Grand Slam, the two losers of the semifinals will play each other for the bronze medal and try to add to their country’s total.
Both semifinal matches will take place on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros on Thursday morning and will be available to stream live on Peacock. The first match between Swiatek and Zheng will begin at approximately 9:20 a.m. ET, while the second match will take place in the afternoon, currently scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.
Swiatek is the favorite to win the tournament as a clay court specialist who has dominated at Roland Garros, home of the French Open. She has won three consecutive tournaments there and four of the last five. If she can beat Zhen and the winner of the Smiedova/Vekic match, it will be her first gold medal. Swiatek competed in the 2020 Olympics, where she was eliminated in the second round.
In the quarterfinals she faced Danielle Collins, an American playing in her final Olympics and final season. Collins was plagued by injury and took the second set, but was forced to retire in the third set when trailing 4-1, allowing Swiatek to win 6-1, 2-6, 4-1.
Zheng, the sixth seed, is fresh off a narrow three-set victory over Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who she ultimately won 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (6). Like Collins, Kerber will not play in the next Olympics, announcing her retirement after the loss. The 21-year-old Zheng will be Swiatek’s toughest test at these Olympics, but she has yet to beat her in six meetings, including two on clay.
In the other half of the group, Vekic and Schmiedova are household names in tennis, but neither was on the radar as a gold medal contender before the Olympics began. Vekic is ranked 21st in the world in singles and has never won a Grand Slam semifinal, playing just once, at Wimbledon, just a month ago. Schmiedova is ranked 67th in the world and has never even played in a Grand Slam quarterfinal in singles. Neither was expected to play, but both have performed well throughout the tournament.
Schmidlova and Vekic have only played each other once before, with Vekic winning in straight sets on a hard court in 2018. Schmidlova beat Barbora Krejcikova 6-4, 6-2 in straight sets, and Vekic was forced into a third-set tiebreak against Marta Kostyuk, who won 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8).
2024 Paris Olympics Women’s Singles Semifinals
No. 1 Iga Swiatek vs. No. 6 Qinwen Zheng (around 9:20 a.m. ET)
Anna Karolina Schmidlova vs. #13 Donna Vekic (approximately 3 p.m. ET)
