China’s Zheng Qinwen has won the gold medal in the women’s singles tennis event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The sixth-seeded Zheng defeated 13th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 in just two sets on the clay courts of Roland Garros. The loss meant Vekic took home the silver medal, which few expected her to receive when the draw was announced.
Although Zheng was ranked No. 7 in the world and ranked higher than Vekic (No. 21), she was not expected to win the gold medal. Both players had beaten higher-ranked opponents multiple times throughout the tournament. Zheng’s medal was China’s first Olympic gold medal in women’s singles.
The 21-year-old Zheng entered the tournament as the sixth seed and put in an incredible performance, defeating top-seeded Iga Swiatek in the semifinals before beating Germany’s Angelique Kerber (2016 silver medalist) in three sets in the quarterfinals.
It was Kerber’s final match as a professional player, but it was her straight-set victory over Swiatek, the top seed and clay-court specialist who has won the French Open three years running on the same clay courts at Roland Garros, that shocked the tennis world.
She became the first Polish tennis player to win a medal at the Summer Olympics, defeating Anna Karolina Schmidlova in the bronze medal match. Schmidlova was ranked 67th in the world, the lowest ranking entering the semifinals since tennis returned to the Olympics, but she still put in an incredible run to become the first Slovakian woman to win a medal in tennis. She defeated fourth seed Jasmine Paolini in the third round and ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets in the quarterfinals.
She then faced Vekic, who easily defeated her in straight sets, 6–4, 6–0. Vekic was 28 years old and entered the Olympics ranked 21st in singles. En route to the final, she had only dropped one set throughout the tournament.
Vekic advanced from the quarterfinals onwards, defeating former U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the second round and Coco Gauff in the third round. Gauff was the world No. 2 player and was considered the United States’ best chance to win a medal in the singles tennis events at these Olympics.
In the men’s tournament, top seed Novak Djokovic will face second seed Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday to decide the gold and silver medals.
