Iga Swiatek misses the gold at the Olympic Games! It’s a tragedy in Poland

Iga Swiatek was eliminated from the Olympic Games in Paris, in the semifinals of the women’s singles event.

One of the most fit players this year’s tennis team suffered an unexpected defeat in the semifinals at the Paris Olympics. There is tragedy in Poland after Iga Swiatek missed the chance to win Olympic gold, although she was considered the favorite.

Iga Swiatek, surprising elimination in Paris: the WTA world number 1 misses the final at the Olympic Games

The WTA world leader showed up in Paris from the position of favorite in the women’s singles event, but he had an unpleasant surprise right before the last act. The Polish athlete was defeated in the semifinals by Qinwen Zheng (7 WTA), score 2-6, 5-7.

It is a totally unexpected result especially by the Polish fans, given that Iga Swiatek was coming to Paris after a very good period with many excellent results. In addition, the playing surface on the Roland Garros courts gave her an advantage, given the fact that she won four of her five career Grand Slams here.

The Chinese player prevailed over the WTA leader in less than two hours and became the fourth player to defeat the Pole in at least two sets on clay since 2019. In the first set he got three breaks and clearly dominated the game, and Swiatek recovered in the second set. Although she started the second set strongly, Zheng came back from 0-4 down to end Igai Swiatek’s invincibility on the Roland Garros courts. For 1149 days he had not lost, achieving no less than 25 consecutive victories in which he lost only four sets.

In the final, Qinwen Zheng will meet the winner of Karolina Schmiedlova (67 WTA) and Donna Vekic (21 WTA). Iga Swiatek will fight for the bronze medal with one of the two players.

Swiatek knows what he missed to fight for Olympic gold in Paris: “I didn’t have time to master this weapon”

Iga Swiatek looked very affected by the semi-final elimination at the Paris Olympics. The Pole said she struggled on the backhand and was unable to improve her game.

I had a big hole in my lapel. It rarely happens because it’s usually my most solid shot. Today I was not well positioned from a technical point of view. Probably also because of the tension. I’ve been playing matches day in and day out, I haven’t had time to master this weapon. It’s not an excuse. Such is the nature of this tournament. I tried to correct it, but it didn’t work,” said Iga Swiatek after the match.

The Asian player achieved her first victory against the WTA leader in an extremely important moment. For Zheng, the pressure was very high, thinking about the Olympics for a long time, and now he has the chance to win the Olympic gold in Paris.

I think in this match I was more patient than her and waited for my chances. I made fewer mistakes than she did. But Iga, even if she loses the first set, is a player who can turn the match around, and she has done that in many other matches so far, especially against me. From 2022 I’m thinking about the Olympics, so you can’t imagine how much pressure I had and how many sacrifices I had to make on the court, especially after eight hours on the court in three days, beating the world number 1 here. It’s unbelievable, but it makes my journey here more meaningful, because I always wanted to play with the best players and beat them. That’s what I want to show with my tennis,” Zheng said appropriately tennis.com