Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 4
Recap and stats from all Women's singles Round of 16 matches
cover 📸credit: Olympic Games website / Getty Images
It was a very hot day at Roland Garros. Extreme weather policy was in effect with temperatures rising above 30º celsius. On top of that, Olympic diplomas were guaranteed to all those qualifying to the quarter-finals.
In a trio of upsets, 2nd-seed Coco Gauff, 4th-seed Jasmine Paolini and 7th-seed Maria Sakkari were eliminated.
6th-seed Qinwen Zheng was one point away from losing at 6-7 3-5 *40/Ad but survived. In a day of long matches, this one was the longest at 3h12min.
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova appeared at her physical limit during the third set against Jasmine Paolini. Somehow, Schmiedlova found the energy to break Paolini at 4-5* en route to winning the last 3 games of the match.
Over the last 4 days, Schmiedlova has beaten Katie Boulter, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Jasmine Paolini. Next up will be Barbora Krejcikova and her 10-match winning streak.
Equally impressive has been Angelique Kerber’s run. After anouncing Paris 2024 would mark her official retirement, she has played free and inspired tennis.
A 24th straight win at Roland Garros Stadium ensured Iga Swiatek will at least match her father Tomasz Swiatek, who earned an Olympic diploma in Seoul 1988 by finishing 7th at the men’s quadrupule sculls event.
Iga Swiatek vs Wang Xiyu
(Poland, rank 1) vs (China, rank 54)
Swiatek did a little better at:
winners 18-14
unforced errors 24-27
forced errors 16-20
Wang generated 8 break points across 5 games, but only converted 2. Swiatek reached break point in 4 return games, broke every time.
Donna Vekic vs Coco Gauff
(Croatia, rank 21) vs (USA, rank 2)
Vekic hit 26 winners plus 5 aces. Gauff countered with only 9 winners.
Vekic won 76% of 1st serve points and held serve in 8 of 10 games.
Vekic was 4-for-6 on break points and 9-for-13 at the net. In contrast, Gauff was 2-for-11 at the net and she only converted 2 of 9 break points.
Gauff enjoyed a good start, jumping to a 5-2 lead in the opener, but her level dropped once she failed to convert a set point in the 8th game. Gauff had 2 more SPs at 6-4 in the tie-break, before Vekic eventually claimed the TB by a 9-7 score. In the 2nd set, Vekic got a break advantage after a judgement call from the chair umpire that Gauff considered incorrect and unfair. Gauff made her case but the umpire stood by his decision to consider it was a late call/overrule that didn't affect Gauff's shot. Down 2-4, Gauff built a 0/40 lead in the following game but Vekic shut the door by saving all 3 break points.
This was the point that left Gauff emotional after her argument with the chair umpire.
📺 credit: Europort / Max
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova vs Jasmine Paolini
(Slovakia, rank 70) vs (Italy, rank 5)
Paolini won 6 more points in the match, but she didn’t win enough of the big points.
Schmiedlova was clutch:
in the opening set, recovered from 2-5 down, and later from 15/40 when serving for the set at 6-5
broke Paolini when the Italian served for the match at 5-4 in the third
came away with a break in all 8 return games in which she reached break point
rescued 5 serve games after facing break point
Paolini hit 15 more winners but also 19 more unforced errors.
Emma Navarro vs Qinwen Zheng
(USA, rank 15) vs (China, rank 7)
Zheng with 12 aces plus 33 winners.
Navarro won only 48% of 1st serve points, was broken in 7 of 16 serve games (44%).
Zheng was up 5-3 in set 1, served for it again at 6-5, then led 6-3 and 7-6 in the tie-break, before Navarro escaped with the TB after saving 4 set points.
In set 2, roles were reversed. Navarro led 5-3 and held a match point that Zheng erased with a big serve. Navarro served for the match at 5-4 and later at 6-5, both times she started 0/40 down.
Zheng carried her momentum into the 2nd set TB and then to the decider, winning 16 of its first 20 points while building a 4-0 lead.
Maria Sakkari vs Marta Kostyuk
(Greece, rank 8) vs (Ukraine, rank 19)
Kostyuk completed the comeback after being 2 points away from losing during the second set tie-break.
Unforced errors: 34-47 in favour of Kostyuk.
Kostyuk was 10-for-19 on break points while Sakkari was 10-for-12. However, despite 9 missed BPs, Kostyuk converted all 10 return games in which she reached BP into breaks. Sakkari failed to do it once, at 3-3 in the third.
Camila Osorio vs Danielle Collins
(Colombia, rank 84) vs (USA, rank 9)
Collins decided most points:
36-8 in winners
34-11 in unforced errors
induced 13 more forced errors
Collins reached break points in 10 of 13 return games, for 7 breaks. Osorio held break points in half of her return games (6 of 12), broke 3 times.
Elina Svitolina vs Barbora Krejcikova
(Ukraine, rank 31) vs (Czechia, rank 10)
Krejcikova recovered from 0-2 down in the deciding set to win her 10th straight match.
Krejcikova was the more active at ending points:
35-18 in winners
54-28 in unforced errors
32-23 in forcing opponent's errors
Svitolina lost the match despite winning more points.
Angelique Kerber vs Leylah Fernandez
(Germany, rank 217) vs (Canada, rank 24)
Unforced errors: 13-26 in favour of Kerber.
Kerber hit 22 winners with 13 unforced errors and 2 double faults, for a +7 differential.
Fernandez won only 16 of 42 1st serve points (38%). The Canadian did not hold once in the second set. In total, she was broken in 7 of 10 serve games.
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Even though they follow the same criteria used on all major tennis events, they are not official WTA or ITF stats. They are collected through our own rigorous video analysis.
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— Tennis Inside Numbers