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Iga Swiatek has been the monster of Roland Garros for the past five years. The Olympics have proven to be a different challenge.
Playing on the same surface where she has won four Roland Garros titles since 2020, Swiatek was upset by China’s Zheng Qinwen 6-2, 7-5 in the women’s singles semi-final, knocking out the heavy favourite to win gold.
Swiatek will now face the loser of the other semi-final between Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova and Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the bronze medal match.
Zheng was not a strong contender as the seventh ranked player in the WTA, but the 21-year-old was a serious underdog with a 0-6 record against Swiatek. She was also facing a player who had won the French Open at the same stadium just two months ago, with a 32-2 record in Paris. And she had had to survive a match point in her previous match against American Anna Navarro to reach the quarter-finals.
It should have been relatively easy for Swiatek, who was fighting for her gold medal on her best surface. She ended up making it difficult.
Swiatek broke Zheng on her first chance in the first set, but then she began to make a number of uncharacteristic errors. Zheng won six straight games to take the set, while Swiatek was visibly frustrated as she made 16 unforced errors.
The Pole rallied and won the first four games of the second set to restore order. Then the errors started again. Zheng broke her three times in a row, again, and took advantage of 20 more unforced errors in the second set. As Swiatek’s return landed too far on match point, Zheng collapsed on the court as if she had just won a tournament.
She has at least made history. Zheng is now the first Chinese tennis player to reach the Olympic final and is already assured of becoming the country’s first medallist.
