Olympic shocker: Swiatek, world number 1, ousted by Zheng

Big surprise in the women's tournament of the Olympic Games. The world number 1 and absolute queen of clay, and Roland Garros, the Polish Iga Swiatek, has lost in the semis of the Paris Olympic Games and will not be able to fight for the gold. The young Chinese Zheng Qinwen won the match in 2 sets (6-2, 7-5).

The Chinese started the duel much more aggressive and motivated and took the first set with great ease (6-2). The second set was more equal, but the Polish did not feel comfortable at any time in Philippe Chatrier, which is usually the playground of Swiatek but today was a nightmare. Zheng also ended up taking the second set by 7-5 and will fight for the Olympic gold while Swiatek will try to take the bronze medal for Poland.

But it is yet more Olympic Games disappoint for Swiatek who came into the tournament as gold medal favourite. Perhaps too it is her best chance of winning the title gone.

It is on her favoured surface and one that she hasn't been beaten on since 2021. She had won her last 20 clay court matches and had a 38-2 career win loss record at Roland Garros. On the very grounds of the Olympic Games, she had won four French Open titles over the past five years.

But this year's Australian Open runner-up Qinwen affectionally known as 'Queenwen' despite having a poor record against Swiatek has not been far off sealing a win against her. She had pushed Swiatek into three sets on half of the six occasions they had played.

She was the only player too to take a set off Swiatek during her perhaps most imperious run to the 2022 French Open title. On Thursday, Qinwen Zheng was up to the task throughout and had real grind to get to this point.

She was up against it vs both Emma Navarro and Angelique Kerber with both pushing her to the limit so she had gone through the ringer. While Swiatek who has often been caught out recently when not at her best has had a fairly easy run so perhaps wasn't as battle hardened.

But not taking anything away from Queenwen who battled ardently and a big chance now awaits. She will face either Anna Karolina Schmiedlova or Donna Vekic in a final which kind of sums up Olympic Games folklore. When the big names fail to produce, it has been Bencic and Puig in recent times that have come to the fore and the three remaining will add to that list as surprising winners. Albeit Qinwen Zheng having starred on this surface and reached a Grand Slam final is perhaps the least shocking of the trio.