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 marched closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
However, defending champion Alexander Zverev crashed out and lost to seasoned Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals.
Seventh-ranked Zheng triumphed 6-2, 7-5 over world number one Swiatek and will face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedl in the gold match.a“I feel more than just happy – happy is not enough to describe how I feel ,” said Zheng, who played three-hour matches to reach the semifinals.
“If you ask me to play another three hours for my country, I would do it. It was an amazing match. Beating Iga is not easy.”
Swiatek, a four-time French Open winner at Roland Garros, entered the match on the steamy Philippe Chatrier Court, unbeaten in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old had also beaten Zheng in all six of his previous matches.
However, she was beaten by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist, who broke the Pole three times in the opening set.
Swiatek appeared to have recovered from the 10-minute break and quickly raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng battled back to claim both breaks at 4-4.
The Chinese star retook a 6-5 lead against an error-plagued Swiatek and claimed victory in the next game.
By reaching the final, Zheng became the first Chinese man or woman to reach an Olympic gold medal singles match, bettering the run of Li Na, who finished fourth in the women's event in Beijing in 2008.
China's only Olympic tennis gold came courtesy of Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women's doubles in Athens in 2004.
At Roland Garros, where he won the French Open for the first time in June, Alcaraz became the youngest Olympic semifinalist since Djokovic in 2008.
The second seed saw off 13th-ranked Tommy Paul of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) after recovering from a second-set deficit to save a set point in the tie-break.
“It's all about the fight,” said Alcaraz, who was playing a day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss in what was likely to be the veteran's last appearance at Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old will face Casper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassim for a place in the final.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti stunned Zverev 7-5, 7-5 on the back of 20 winners as the 16th-ranked Italian continued his torrid Olympic run.
The 22-year-old played the final of the tour in Umag, Croatia, on Saturday night and did not arrive in Paris until Sunday morning, just hours before the first-round clash.
Musetti advanced to the semifinals without dropping a set, becoming the first Italian to reach the singles semifinals since tennis returned to the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
The Italian will face either top-seeded Djokovic, who beat him in the Wimbledon semifinals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the gold match.
Still chasing the elusive Olympic gold medal to add to his 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic will face Tsitsipas on the same court where he battled from two sets down to defeat the Greek in the French Open final in 2021.
The Serb cruised through the first three rounds in Paris and will be buoyed by his 11-2 head-to-head record against Tsitsipas.
That run also included winning the Australian Open final in 2023, while Tsitsipas' last win over Djokovic came back in 2019.
Paul will return to the courts later on Thursday when he teams up with Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals of the men's doubles, which could spell the end of Andy Murray's career.
Murray and Dan Evans will face the American third seed for a place in the semi-finals.
Murray, a former world number one and three-time Grand Slam singles champion, has already announced his intention to retire after the Olympics.
The 37-year-old and Evans have held their own so far at the Olympics on the roller coaster, saving seven match points over two rounds.
