Despite reaching the semifinals on a 20-match winning streak on clay courts, Olympic gold medal favorite Iga Swiatek was eliminated from the women’s tennis tournament.
The world number one ranked player lost in straight sets to China’s Zheng Qinwen, 6-2, 7-5.
The upset loss was Swiatek’s first defeat at the Roland Garros tennis complex in three years, after she had previously proven herself to be the best player in the world on clay, having won four of the last five French Opens. Moreover, Zheng came into the match with a combined record of 0-6 against the Polish star.
Yet Zheng began the match quickly dominating, breaking Swiatek early in the first set and forcing her opponent onto the defensive, after which the tournament’s top seed never recovered and eventually conceded the first set in fairly one-sided fashion.
Things looked to be turning around early in the second set, as Swiatek played fairly comfortably and opened up a 4-0 lead, but Zhen managed to fight her way back and eventually bring the set to the brink of a potentially decisive tiebreaker.
But it didn’t happen, as Zheng broke Swiatek’s serve one last time to lead 6-5 and eventually seal the victory, the final point played after 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Thanks to her upset over Swiatek, Zheng became the first Chinese tennis player, male or female, to reach an Olympic gold medal match. At worst, she will go home as a silver medalist. But after beating the heavy favorite in the semifinals, her goal is not just to reach the final.
The second semifinal, starting at 1 PM ET, will see Anna Karolina Schmidlova (SVK) take on Donna Vekic (CRO), who will be at a disadvantage against Zheng, regardless of who wins.
