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Zheng Qinwen ended Iga Swiatek’s 25-match unbeaten streak at the French Open on Thursday to become the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic singles final, while Carlos Alcaraz moved closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
However, defending champion Alexander Zverev was eliminated, losing to Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals.
World No. 7 Zheng Sai defeated world No. 1 Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 and will face either Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova for the gold medal.
“I feel more than just happy, ‘happy’ is not enough to describe my mood,” said Zheng Saisai, who played two consecutive three-hour matches to advance to the semifinals.
“If you let me play for the national team for another three hours, I would.”
Swiatek has won the French Open title at Roland Garros four times and has not lost in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old has defeated Zheng Saisai in all six previous meetings between the two.
However, she was outplayed by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist, who broke serve three times in the first set.
Swiatek seemed to recover with a 10-minute break and quickly took a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng fought back and broke twice to win 4-4.
Facing Swiatek who made frequent mistakes, the Chinese star broke again, leading 6-5 and winning the next game.
By reaching the final, Zheng Saisai became the first Chinese athlete, male or female, to reach the Olympic singles gold medal match, breaking the record of Li Na, who finished fourth in the women’s singles event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
China’s only Olympic tennis gold medal was won by Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women’s doubles event at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
– ‘About this battle’ –
Alcaraz returned to Roland Garros and won his first French Open title in June, becoming the youngest Olympic semifinalist since Djokovic in 2008.
The No. 2 seed recovered after being broken in the second set and saved a set point in the tie-break to defeat American No. 13 Tommy Paul 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
“It’s all about fighting,” said Alcaraz, 21, who suffered a crushing defeat in a doubles match against Rafael Nadal in what could have been the veteran’s final French Open appearance.
Alcaraz will next face Felix Auger-Aliassime, who became the first Canadian to reach the semifinals by defeating sixth seed and two-time French Open runner-up Kasper Ruud 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 6-3.
– Champion Zverev out –
Musetti beat Zverev 7-5, 7-5 with 20 winners, and the world No. 16 became the first Italian to reach the singles semifinals since tennis returned at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
He will play for the gold medal against top seed Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat him in the Wimbledon semifinals.
When asked who he would rather face, Musetti replied: “Of course, not against both of them.”
Zverev said illness was partly to blame for his defeat, but he also criticised the scheduling of the tournament as “a disgrace” given that he played the quarter-final less than a day after the last 16.
Djokovic, still seeking an elusive Olympic gold medal to complement his 24 Grand Slam titles, will face Tsitsipas on the same court where he overcame a two-set deficit to defeat the Greek player in the 2021 French Open final.
The Serbian has breezed through the first three rounds of the Paris Open and will be even more exciting with an 11-2 head-to-head record against Tsitsipas.
The fight also includes winning the Australian Open final in 2023. Tsitsipas last defeated Djokovic in 2019.
Tommy Paul teams up with Taylor Fritz in the men’s doubles quarterfinals later Thursday in a match that could mark the end of Andy Murray’s career.
Murray, a former world number one and three-time Grand Slam singles champion who is currently partnered with Dan Evans, will retire after the Olympics.
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