PARIS: Zheng Qinwen ended Iga Swiatek's 25-match unbeaten run at Roland Garros on Thursday and became the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic singles final, as Carlos Alcaraz edged closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
However, defending champion Alexander Zverev was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the in-form Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Zheng, ranked seventh, beat world No. 1 Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 and will now face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmidlova in the gold medal match. “I feel more than just happy. Happiness is not enough to describe how I feel,” said Zheng, who played a three-hour match to reach the semifinals.
“If you ask me to play for the national team for another three hours, I will do it. It was a great match. It is not easy to beat Iga.”
Four-time French Open champion Swiatek played at Roland Garros on a muggy Court Philippe Chatrier, having not lost in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old has also beaten Zheng in their previous six meetings.
However, she was knocked off the court by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist, who broke the pole position three times in the opening set.
Swiatek appeared to make a comeback on the 10-minute break and quickly took a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng fought back and won both break points to make it 4-4.
The Chinese star regained the lead 6-5 over the error-prone Swiatek and won the next game.
Zheng's advancement to the final made him the first Chinese male or female athlete to win an Olympic individual gold medal, bettering Li Na's fourth-place finish in the women's final in Beijing in 2008.
China's only Olympic tennis gold medal came in the women's doubles of Li Ding and Sun Tiantian in Athens in 2004.
Alcaraz returns to Roland Garros, where he won his first French Open title in June, becoming the youngest Olympic semi-finalist since Novak Djokovic in 2008.
The No. 2 seed defeated 13th seed Tommy Paul of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) after recovering from a second-set breakdown and saving a set point in the tiebreak.
“It’s all about the fight,” said Alcaraz, who was playing the day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking defeat in doubles in what was likely to be the veteran’s final appearance at Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old will now face either Casper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in the final.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti surprised Zverev with a 7-5, 7-5 victory in a 20-man match as the 16th-ranked Italian continued his impressive run at the Olympics.
The 22-year-old will play in the Tour final in Umag, Croatia, on Saturday night and arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, just hours before the first round.
Musetti advanced to the semifinals without dropping a set, becoming the first Italian player to reach the singles semifinals since tennis returned to the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
The Italian will now face the tournament's top seed, Djokovic, who beat him in the Wimbledon semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas, for a place in the gold medal match.
Novak Novak is still determined to add to his 24-time Grand Slam gold and will face Tsitsipas on the same court where he came from two sets down to beat the Greek in the 2021 French Open final.
The Serbian has breezed through the first three rounds in Paris and will likely be boosted by his 11-2 record against Tsitsipas.
That run also includes a victory in the final of the 2023 Australian Open, while Tsitsipas' last victory over Djokovic came in 2019.
Paul will return to action on Thursday when he teams up with Taylor Fritz in the men's doubles quarterfinals in what could spell the end of Andy Murray's career.
Murray and Dan Evans will face the third-seeded US team for a spot in the semifinals.
Former world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam singles champion Murray has announced his intention to retire from tennis after the Olympics.
The 37-year-old and Evans faced a fierce Olympic rivalry, with seven match points saved in two rounds.
