At the 2024 Olympics , tennis will be held on clay courts at Roland Garros. This is where Iga Swiatek is dominating world women's tennis with 4 championships in the last 5 tournaments.
That's why the Polish tennis player aims to win a gold medal at the Olympics in Paris. This is Swiatek's second time attending the Summer Olympics, with the first being losing in the second round at the Tokyo Olympics, to Paula Badosa.
That year, Swiatek was only 20 years old, was the number 6 seed and played on hard courts, so the defeat was not too surprising. But at the 2024 Olympics, she has all the ingredients to aim for victory.
When she is more mature at the age of 23, is the top seed, and plays on her favorite court, the question is, who can stop the world's number 1 Polish female tennis player?
On his journey, Swiatek had 3 convincing matches with only 6 sets without losing. There was a bit of difficulty in the quarterfinals when meeting Danielle Collins - seed number 8, but the opponent had to withdraw due to injury in set 3.
In the semi-finals, Swiatek met Zheng Qinwen, the No. 6 seed from China, who went through a rather difficult journey with 2 matches in round 3 and round 4 requiring 3 sets, of which 2 sets required a tie-break.
Confrontation history favors Swiatek, as she won all 6 matches against the 21-year-old player, including 2 matches in 2024 at the United Cup and Dubai.
However, on the familiar Philippe-Chatrier field, Swiatek - maybe a bit subjective, played very poorly. Zheng let him break right away in game 3 and even though he reclaimed the break right after, Swiatek lost 2 consecutive service games after that.
In a set with 16 unforced errors, Swiatek quickly lost 2-6 in just 39 minutes.
The return of focus in set 2 helped Swiatek confirm his position as the number 1 seed, breaking 2 games and leading 4-0. However, the effectiveness suddenly disappeared, so that with 20 unforced errors and 3 double faults, Swiatek was broken 3 times in 4 service games.
From a great advantage to equalize the score, Swiatek lost 5-7 and will have to compete for the bronze medal.
And Zheng Qinwen will enter the final, meeting the winner of the other semi-final between Anna Schmiedlova and Donna Vekic.
