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PARIS: 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 singles final as Carlos Alcaraz marched closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
However, defending champion Alexander Zverev crashed out and lost his quarter-final against a fired-up Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.
Seventh-seeded Zheng triumphed 6-2, 7-5 over world number one Swiatek and will face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the gold medal match.a”I feel more than just happy — happy is not enough to describe how I feel,” said Zheng, who had played back-to-back three-hour matches to reach the semifinals.
“If you ask me to play another three hours for my country, I would do it. It was a great game. Beating Iga is not easy.”
Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, entered the match on a sweltering court Philippe Chatrier has not lost in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old had also defeated Zheng in all six of their previous meetings.
However, she was met off court by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist who broke the pole three times in the opening set.
Swiatek seemed recovered after a 10-minute break and quickly stretched out to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng fought back to claim both breaks to make it 4-4.
The Chinese star broke again for a 6-5 lead against the error-stricken Swiatek and claimed victory in the next game.
By reaching 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 competition in Beijing 2008.
China's only Olympic tennis gold came thanks to Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women's doubles in Athens 2004.
Alcaraz, back at Roland Garros where he won the French Open for the first time 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 to save a set point in the tie-break.
“It's all about the fight,” said Alcaraz, who played the day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss in what was likely the veteran's final appearance at Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old will face either Casper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in the final.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti stunned Zverev 7-5, 7-5 after 20 winners as the 16th-ranked Italian continued his storming Olympic run.
The 22-year-old played a tour final in Umag in Croatia on Saturday night and arrived in Paris only on Sunday morning, just hours before his first round match.
Musetti has reached the semi-finals without dropping a set as he became the first Italian man to reach the singles semi-finals since tennis returned to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The Italian will face either top seed Djokovic, who beat him in the Wimbledon semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the gold match.
Djokovic, still searching for an elusive Olympic gold medal to add to his 24 Grand Slam titles, takes on Tsitsipas on the same court where in 2021 he fought back from two sets down to defeat the Greek in the French Open final.
The Serb has made it through the first three rounds in Paris and will be carried by his 11-2 head-to-head record against Tsitsipas.
That run also included victory in the Australian Open final in 2023 while Tsitsipa's last win over Djokovic came back in 2019.
Paul will return to the courts later on Thursday when he teams up with Taylor Fritz in a men's doubles quarter-final that could mark the end of Andy Murray's career.
Murray and Dan Evans will face the US third seeds for a place in the semi-finals.
Murray, a former world number one and three-time Grand Slam singles champion, has already announced his intention to retire after the Olympics.
The 37-year-old and Evans have endured a roller-coaster Olympics so far, saving seven match points over two rounds.

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