Composition The final of the Olympic singles tournament at Roland Garros was certainly surprising. Iga Świątek was expected to face Coco Gauff or Elena Rybakina, but Shelf and the American lost to Saturday's finalists, and the Kazakhstan representative withdrew just before the start of the Olympics.
Zheng's superiority is evident from the very beginning
Qinwen Zheng, who beat Świątek in the semi-final, was on paper the favorite in the clash with Donna Vekić. The Chinese player gave a clear signal in the first minutes of the final that she was confidently going for Olympic gold. She quickly won the opening game of the match, then quickly broke the Croatian and increased the lead to 3:0. She ruthlessly exploited Vekić's weaker entry in game. The semi-finalist at this year's Wimbledon played quite slowly and was stiff on her feet.
Vekić started playing more boldly and aggressively in the fourth game, but she couldn't get a hold of herself. She couldn't find a way to Zheng's excellent return, which was played in the style of Świątek or Rafael Nadal, with incredible power and spin. In addition, she had a better serve than the Croatian. Thanks to these two elements, the Chinese had an advantage, which she kept until the end of the set, which she won 6:2.
Zheng better at key moment, then went for gold
In the second set, the Chinese tennis player did not avoid mistakes, sometimes Vekić was simply better on the court than her. The Croatian came to the net more often, played her forehand and backhand with more power, forced Zheng to play defensively. Thanks to this, Vekić quite efficiently got from 0:2 to 2:2.
In the next three games we had an even duel, neither player was able to gain a decisive advantage or maintain even a minimal one. Vekić knew that she had to have a favorable result while she had the strength. It took her a lot of energy to equalize, but in the end she did not tip the scales in her favor.
The eighth game of the second set proved crucial. It was obvious that Vekić was losing strength, as she made increasingly simple mistakes on her own serve. Although she defended three break points, she had nothing to say about the fourth. In the next, last game, Zheng had everything under control. One counterattack by Vekić did not knock her out of rhythm. The Chinese player won the set 6:3, the entire match 2:0 and deservedly took the Olympic gold.
Women's singles tournament final at the Olympic Games in Paris:
Qinwen Zheng (China, WTA 7th) – Donna Vekić (Croatia, IN THIS 21.) 6:2, 6:3