Day 6 of Olympic tennis has brought into focus the final contenders for Olympic gold medal glory. The women’s draw has been whittled down to the last two, and the men’s players have been minced to the closing quartet.
Here’s the storylines from all the swings today on Day 6 of the Olympic tennis tournament.
China’s Zheng Qinwen upsets top seed Iga Swiatek in Paris tennis semifinals
Women’s top tennis player Iga Swiatek suffered a semifinal loss on Thursday, after China’s Zheng Qinwen crushed Swiatek, 6-2, 7-5, in a straight-set symphony.
Clay court connoisseur Swiatek was caught off her game, when determined sixth seed Zheng shocked the tournament in an electric tennis match.
Zheng’s semifinal has already changed the history of tennis, as she is guaranteed to become the first Chinese tennis singles player to win a medal the Olympics.
China kept the wins coming on Day 6, when mixed doubles tandem Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen defeated the Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof in a super tiebreak.
They became the second Chinese pair to reach an Olympic doubles final after Li Ting and Sun Tian-Tian won the women’s doubles gold medal in Athens in 2004.
Wang had only replaced Zheng in the mixed doubles at the last minute.
“It was like (I had) finished my first Olympics (after losing in the women’s singles),” Wang said. “I was checking the tickets, making plans for the next weeks. And then all of a sudden I get a phone call, ‘You want to play? OK, sure’.”
Day 6 saw China have unprecedented sucess, and for the first time in history, China has finalists in two Olympic tennis events.
MATCH STATS l MIXED DOUBLES BRACKET
SEE MORE: Top seed Iga Swiatek ousted by Zheng Qinwen in SF upset
Carlos Alcaraz clinches first Olympic semifinal berth
Second seed Carlos Alcaraz clinched his first Olympic semifinal berth in his debut at the Games. The Spaniard dismissed American Tommy Paul in a scintillating straight-sets victory, 6-3, 7-6.
Alcaraz’s win has made him the youngest player to reach the men’s singles semifinals at the Olympics since Beijing in 2008, when another Paris player, Novak Djokovic did the same. Fans are eagerly anticipating in what could be a block-buster Olympic men’s final, should Alcaraz advance, he could face the No. 1 seed Djokovic for the gold medal.
SEE MORE: Carlos Alcaraz clinches first Olympic semifinal berth
Doubles domination
American doubles dynamos, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram secured their spot into the Olympics men’s doubles final on Thursday, after the pair defeated Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlaseck of Czechia, 6-2, 6-2. The pair return to the Games for their first medal as a team. Krajicek finished fourth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Ram won a silver medal fin 2016 with mixed doubles partner Venus Williams.
SEE MORE: U.S. doubles duo Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram into final
Olympic tennis results, Aug. 1
Full Olympic tennis results from Thursday, Aug. 1:
Men’s singles l Women’s singles l Men’s doubles l Women’s doubles l Mixed doubles
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