Tournament The women's singles competition at the Olympic Games in Paris was full of surprises and sensations. One very unpleasant one was experienced by Polish fans on Thursday afternoon, when Iga Świątek lost in the semifinals to Chinese Qinwen Zheng 2:6, 5:7.
The sensation was the presence of the Croatian in the second semi-final. Donny Vekiæ (IN THIS 21) and the Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (WTA 67). Vekić has already managed to beat the American in this tournament Coco Gauff (WTA 2), and Schmiedlova eliminated Italian Jasmine Paolini (WTA 5) and Czech Barbora Krejcikova (WTA 10).
Vekić will play for gold, Schmiedlova from Świątek for bronze. Declassification in the second semi-final
However, when both players stepped onto Philippe Chatrier's court on Thursday evening, there was no doubt as to who was better. And this time, there was no more surprise, because the much higher-rated Vekić crushed her opponent, giving her just four games. The result 6:4, 6:0 says it all.
Vekić played absolutely perfectly on her own serve in this match, not allowing the Slovak even a single break point. Playing like this, the Croatian only needed to look for her chances to break. In the first set, such a chance came in the fifth game, when Vekić broke Schmiedlova smoothly to 15, and then, holding her serve, won 6:4.
The second set was a complete disaster, because Schmiedlova managed to win two points in only one game. In total, she won only six “small” points in the entire set and Vekić had no major problems in beating her 6:0, and then with tears in her eyes celebrating her advancement to the Olympic final, in which she will face Qinwen Zheng on Saturday.
Schmiedlova, on the other hand, has very little time to regenerate because her game for the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Paris with Iga Świątek will take place on Friday at around 3:30 p.m. This will be the second match from 1:30 p.m. on the Philippe Chatrier court, where the men's semifinal will be played earlier by the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.