PARIS (AFP) – Zheng Qinwen ended Iga Swiatek's 25-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros on Thursday to become the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic Games singles final as Carlos Alcaraz marched closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev however crashed out, losing his quarter-final to a fired-up Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.
Seventh-ranked Zheng triumphed 6-2, 7-5 over world number one Swiatek and will face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia for gold.
"I feel more than just happy, happy isn't enough to describe how I feel," said Zheng, who had played back-to-back three-hour matches to make the semi-final.
"If you ask me to play another three hours for my country, I would."
Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, went into the match having not lost in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old had also defeated Zheng in all of their six previous meetings.
However she was hit off the court by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist who broke the Pole three times in the opening set.
Swiatek appeared restored by a 10-minute break and quickly stretched out to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng battled back, retrieving both breaks for 4-4.
The Chinese star broke again for a 6-5 lead against the error-plagued Swiatek and claimed victory in the next game.
By making the final, Zheng is the first Chinese man or woman to reach an Olympic singles gold medal match, bettering the run of Li Na, who finished fourth in the women's event at Beijing in 2008.
China's only Olympics tennis gold came thanks to Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women's doubles at Athens in 2004.
'ABOUT THE FIGHT'
Alcaraz, back at Roland Garros where he won a maiden French Open in June, became the youngest Olympic semi-finalist 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 break down in the second set and saving a set point in the tie-break.
"It's all about the fight," said Alcaraz, 21, who was playing the day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss in what was probably the veteran's final appearance at Roland Garros.
Alcaraz will next face Felix Auger-Aliassime, who became the first Canadian to make the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 6-3 win over sixth-seeded Casper Ruud, a two-time French Open runner-up.
CHAMPION ZVEREV OUT
Musetti stunned Zverev 7-5, 7-5 on the back of 20 winners as the world number 16 became the first Italian to reach the singles semi-finals since tennis returned to the Olympics at Seoul 1988.
He will face either top seed Djokovic, who beat him in the Wimbledon semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the gold medal match.
When asked who he'd prefer to face, Musetti replied: "Neither of them, of course."
Zverev said illness was partly responsible for his defeat but also blasted the schedule as "a disgrace" after playing his quarter-final less than a day after his last-16 tie.
Djokovic, still seeking an elusive Olympic gold medal to add to his 24 Grand Slam titles, takes on Tsitsipas on the same court where in 2021 he battled back from two sets down to defeat the Greek in the French Open final.
The Serb has coasted 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 victory in the final of the 2023 Australian Open final. Tsitsipas's last win over Djokovic came back in 2019.
Tommy Paul later Thursday teams up with Taylor Fritz in a men's doubles quarter-final which could mark the end of Andy Murray's career.
Murray, a former world number one and three-time Grand Slam singles champion, who is partnering Dan Evans, will retire once his Olympics is over.