Olympic Games Paris 2024: Quarter-finals and first Semi-final
Recap and stats from the quarter-finals and the first semi-final of the Women's singles competition
cover 📸credit: Olympic Games website / Getty Images
The Olympics Women’s singles tennis competition has been a cracking event, with a non-stop supply of exciting matches and a bit of on-court and off-court drama to spice things up.
The action has gone so fast that we already have to talk about Iga Swiatek’s elimination at the hands of Qinwen Zheng, before addressing their quarter-final victories.
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Semi-Finals
Iga Swiatek vs Qinwen Zheng
(Poland, rank 1) vs (China, rank 7)
Qinwen Zheng won her 10th straight match and ended Iga Swiatek's 25-match winning streak in Paris.
Despite being winless in 6 previous career meetings against Swiatek, Zheng was serene and confident throughout the match.
In contrast, Swiatek felt the pressure of the moment.
During the first set, Swiatek faced break points in all 4 serve games.
In the second set, the world #1 was unable to build on a 4-0 lead.
By the end, Swiatek had accumulated 36 unforced errors while Zheng only had 13.
Quarter-Finals
Iga Swiatek vs Danielle Collins
(Poland, rank 1) vs (USA, rank 9)
Swiatek leaned on her serve to win.
With both players finishing with a +5 winners-to-unforced errors differential, the winning margin was created by return forced errors. In this metric, Swiatek had a 19-7 advantage.
Big difference at the net: Swiatek 8-for-10, Collins 4-for-11.
Swiatek won 12 of the first 15 points to open up a 3-0 lead in the first set.
After battling through a 12-point game to hold serve at the start of the second set, Collins had her own 3-0 lead. She maintained it by dominating rallies.
Just like in previous sets, Swiatek broke in the 2nd game en route to a 3-0 lead in the decider. At that moment, Collins took a medical time-out for an abdominal injury. The American returned and played 2 more games but eventually retired down 1-4.
Angelique Kerber vs Qinwen Zheng
(Germany, rank 217) vs (China, rank 7)
Angie Kerber's career ended on a thrilling 3h07min, down-to-the-wire match. A fitting finale!
Totally exhausted, Kerber saved 3 consecutive match points in stunning fashion during the deciding set tie-break before bowing out by a 6-8 score.
Credit to Zheng for keeping her errors under control in such meaningful moment for both players. A double fault at 4-1 was Zheng's only unforced error in the deciding TB. A few rallies were long but Zheng was patient enough.
Kerber finished with a negative winners-to-unforced errors differential for the first time in the Olympics. Zheng ended +7.
Zheng was 18-for-25 at the net, Kerber 2-for-9.
Kerber was a perfect 5-for-5 on break points.
Zheng led 5-3 in the first set before losing it in a tie-break. In the decider, Kerber led 4-1.
Barbora Krejcikova vs Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
(Czechia, rank 10) vs (Slovakia, rank 70)
While both players ended their Round of 16 matches with some physical struggles, Schmiedlova was in a superior condition.
Big gap in unforced errors: Krejcikova 32 / Schmiedlova 15
There was also a big difference in 2nd serve points won: Krejcikova 34% / Schmiedlova 71%
Schmiedlova scored her third career Top-10 win. All of them have been at the Olympic Games: Roberta Vinci, Rio 2016; Jasmine Paolini, Paris 2024; Barbora Krejcikova, Paris 2024.
Marta Kostyuk vs Donna Vekic
(Ukraine, rank 19) vs (Croatia, rank 21)
Yet another 3-hour nail-biter that required a deciding set tie-break.
Vekic served for the match twice, at 5-4 and 6-5 in the third. In each game, she held a match point but failed to convert.
In the TB, Vekic recovered from 2-5 down, before Kostyuk took the 5-5 point to earn her first match point. A brave Vekic erased it with a thunderous return winner. After 2 more match point misses, Vekic finally took the TB by a 10-8 score.
Vekic hit 12 more winners but also 14 more unforced errors.
Kostyuk had a higher percentage of 1st serves made (73% vs 51%) and a slightly better winning percentage, but she did worse behind 2nd serves (8-for-28, 29%).
Kostyuk lost the match despite winning 5 more points.
To find out more about the stats we publish, please visit the following post.
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