PARIS, Aug. 1, (Agencies): Australian Open finalist Zheng Qinwen upset top seed Iga Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 in a historic win to book her place in the gold medal match of Olympic women's singles final here at Roland Garros.

The victory marked China's best result in the Olympic tennis women's singles event after two-time Grand Slam winner Li Na reached the last four at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Both women arrived at Court Philippe-Chatrier after coming through tough three-set matches the day before. Swiatek, a four-time French Open winner, entered the match with a perfect 6-0 record against China's number one.

Despite Zheng's three-hour battle with German veteran Angelique Kerber on Wednesday, it was Swiatek who started the slower. The number one seed was made to work to hold her service in the opening game before Zheng broke at the second time of asking.
Before the changeover, both women broke each other with ease, reflecting shades of Zheng's attritional win against Kerber, where both women broke each other numerous times throughout the match. In the following game, Zheng broke again before carrying her momentum through the set.

Starting the second set, Swiatek found herself down against Zheng, who fought back hard, breaking the Chinese twice consecutively to take a 4-0 lead in the set. But Zheng battled back, breaking Swiatek twice herself to win four games on the trot.
After a goliath battle over a deuce in which Zheng held her serve, the match entered the crucial period late in the set, with both women fighting hard to swing the match in their favor. It was Zheng who made the first major step towards victory, breaking Swiatek in the 11th game.

Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man to reach the singles semifinals at a Summer Games since Novak Djokovic in 2008 by getting past Tommy Paul of the U.S. 6-3, 7-6 (7) at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
Alcaraz is a 21-year-old Spaniard who is just a few days older than Djokovic was 16 years ago in Beijing.
This is only the latest in a series of "youngest since” or "youngest ever” achievements for Alcaraz, who is coming off titles at the French Open - which is held at Roland Garros, the same facility being used for the 2024 Paris Games - in June and at Wimbledon in July.

Those trophies raised his Grand Slam trophy count to four. As it is, he was the youngest man with a major championship on hard, grass, and clay courts. In 2022, he became the first teenager to reach No. 1 in the ATP rankings, getting there after winning the U.S. Open.
And so on.

Alcaraz and Paul, whose best showing at a major was a semifinal run at the 2023 Australian Open, are developing a bit of a rivalry. Alcaraz is now 5-2 head-to-head, which includes defeating Paul a few weeks ago in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Chinese pair Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen made history after coming from behind to beat Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands to reach the Paris Olympics Tennis mixed doubles final on Thursday.
The Netherlands pair collected the first set 6-2 in 37 minutes, while Wang and Zhang won back the second set 6-4. In the decider, the Chinese duo extended high morale to lead the tie-breaker and scored 10 points first against their opponents' four.