Iga Świątek will not win a gold medal at the Olympics.
Iga Świątek will not win a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Polish player, who lost only one match at Roland Garros between 2020 and 2024, had to admit the superiority of her rival, Qinwen Zheng, in the semifinals. The match ended with a score of 2:6, 5:7 in favor of the Chinese player. This defeat is all the more shocking because Świątek had defeated the 21-year-old Asian in all of their previous six matches. In the match for the final, Świątek was clearly not herself, showing nervousness and making many mistakes.
Iga Świątek's semifinal match started very nervously for her. She alternated spectacular actions with simple mistakes and had problems with her serve. In the very first game, the Roland Garros champion had to defend a break point, which she managed to master. In the next service game, the Pole was unable to defend herself, and at the break point she made a double service fault, reports Super Express.
Świątek reacted quickly to the setback, winning another game to zero on the Chinese serve, drawing the score 2:2. Unfortunately, after a while she lost her serve again. It was obvious that she was very stressed, which affected her service movement and hitting her first serve. In addition to her weak serve, simple errors were added, and Świątek spoiled easy balls, which gave Zheng the advantage. The Chinese player took advantage of the situation, closing the first set with a powerful serve, while Świątek made as many as 16 unforced errors.
Iga Świątek also started the second set with errors, but quickly started playing better. She built a 4:0 advantage, and the Chinese journalists, who were in ecstasy after the first set, fell silent. However, Zheng's crisis was short-lived. The finalist of this year's Australian Open started playing very well again, putting a lot of pressure on Świątek. After a tight advantage game, in which the Pole had a chance to break and take a 5:3 lead, it became 4:4. The nervous Świątek started making simple mistakes, and Zheng proved more effective in key moments, winning the match.
Iga Świątek remains in the fight for a medal, this time bronze. She will fight for it against Croatian Donna Vekić or Slovakian Anna Katerina Schmiedlova. The second women's semi-final will be played in the evening. Świątek will have another chance to add an Olympic medal to her impressive trophy collection.
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