Zheng Qinwen shocks Iga Swiatek, surges into Olympic Gold Medal Match in Paris

Zheng Qinwen earned the biggest victory of her young career at the Summer Olympic Games, booking her spot in the Gold Medal Match with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Iga Swiatek in Paris.

"I feel in this match I had more patience than her, and I waited for my chances," Zheng said on court. "I made less mistakes than her. But Iga, even if she loses the first set she’s a player who can turn the game around, and she’s done that in a lot of matches before, especially in matches against me!"

The No. 6 seed had never beaten Swiatek, the heavy pre-tournament favorite, in six previous encounters but rallied from 0-4 down in the second set to win a 10th straight match and ground the top seed, who will now compete for the bronze medal on Friday, in one hour and 51 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

"Everyone knows how I want to get this medal for my country," said Zheng. "Since 2022, I’ve been hoping for the 2024 Olympic Games, so you cannot imagine how much pressure I had and how many sacrifices I needed to make on the court, especially after eight hours on court in three days, beating the world No. 1 here. It’s unbelievable but it makes my journey more meaningful because I always wanted to play the best players and beat them. That’s what I want to show for my tennis. I want to congratulate Iga for fighting for her country and showing such an amazing match."

A four-time champion at Roland Garros—having won her first title less than two months ago—Swiatek was coming off the toughest challenge of her Olympic campaign, losing her first set of the week to American rival Danielle Collins. Though the match ended with a retirement, there appeared to be no love lost between the combatants, and the odds-on favorite for the gold medal began Thursday’s clash with Zheng decidedly on edge and ultimately ended the match with a whopping 36 unforced errors.

Though she trailed Swiatek 0-6 in their head-to-head, Zheng had taken a set three times, and after defending her title in Palermo ahead of the Games was enjoying a dramatic week on the terre battue, scoring back-to-back three-set victories over No. 11 seed Emma Navarro and former No. 1 Angelique Kerber, who was playing the final tournament of her career. Playing in her first Olympic Games, she put herself in pole position to leave Paris with a medal by reaching the semifinals.

The 21-year-old, who began 2024 with a breakout run to the Australian Open final, started strong against Swiatek, emerging from an early exchange of breaks with the lead and breaking Swiatek a third time en route to a one-set advantage. But following a bathroom break, Swiatek made her move to start the second set, rolling through the first four games.

"Against Iga, you have to be focused all the time, so when I was down 0-4, I started to be more aggressive because I felt in the second set I was waiting too much. Of course, it’s good to be patient but with Iga, you need to be patient but aggressive at the same time."

Zheng gamely battled back, recovering both breaks and after saving two break points through a marathon eighth game, leveled proceedings at four games apiece.

A frustrated Swiatek stopped the run against her, capitalizing on a net cord winner to put herself a game from forcing a final set. Two points from a break, Zheng dug out of a 15-30 deficit to put pressure back on Swiatek. Overpowering the Pole on the backhand side, Zheng converted a 15-40 lead of her own to find herself serving for a spot in the Gold Medal Match.

Swiatek made a brave last stand, earning a break point to force a tiebreaker, but Zheng saved it by combining a big serve with a deft drop shot. A backhand miss from Swiatek pulled up match point, who fell to the ground in delight after one last big serve. By match's end, Zheng had struck a clean 17 winners to just 13 unforced errors.

"If you ask me how I’m doing? I don’t know! I just played every single point, and I knew that even if I lost the second set that I would still fight for the third set. I think it’s because of this mentality that I was able to fight for every point and wait for my chance."

Standing betwen Zheng and Olympic gold will be the winner of the second semifinal between Donna Vekic and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.