Heading into the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the genuine consensus was by many who followed the sport that the world number one, Iga Swiatek of Poland, would be the overwhelming favourite to win Olympic gold in women’s singles. The reason is because of Swiatek’s dominance at the French Open since 2020. At the last five French Open championships, Swiatek has won the title four times. She was victorious in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The only player to beat Swiatek in five years at the French Open was Maria Sakkari of Greece, who knocked out Swiatek with a 6-4, 6-4 win in the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open. However, crazy things can happen at the Olympic Games, as we saw on Thursday. To many people’s surprise, Swiatek will not be reaching the Olympic gold medal final in women’s tennis after being beat in the semifinals by Qinwen Zheng of China. It was Zheng, the tournament’s sixth seed, and 2024 Australian Open finalist, who came away with a 6-2, 7-5 win.
Zheng will now face Donna Vekic of Croatia, the Olympic tournament’s 13th seed, in the gold medal match on Saturday. in the other women’s semifinal, Vekic steamrolled past Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-0.
Vekic and Zheng have beaten each other once. Vekic, the 2024 Wimbledon semifinalist, won their first meeting, 7-6, 6-2 in the first round of the 2021 Courmayeur Ladies Open in Italy. It was a dominant first set tiebreak for Vekic, who won seven of the eight points. Then Zheng beat Vekic 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the round robin portion of the 2023 WTA Trophy in Zhuhai, China.
China and Croatia have won one gold medal each in tennis in the history of the Olympic Games. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, China’s Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won gold in women’s doubles. At the 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, Croatia’s Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic won gold in men’s doubles.
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