Iga Swiatek will be leaving Paris with a medal around her neck, as she won a bronze medal match against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The Polish player entered the Olympic tennis tournament as the top favorite for multiple reasons. Not only is she the World No. 1 player on the WTA Tour, but she is also a four-time French Open champion.
That's a major played on the very same courts as Roland Garros hosted the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The 23-year-old appeared to be cruising through the draw, but that was only until she ran into an inspired Qinwen Zheng from China.
The Chinese player stunned her in two sets, leaving Swiatek tearful after the match. Still, the unique format of the Olympics gave the Pole a unique chance to still leave the French capital with a medal.
On top of that, her chances massively increased after the other half of the draw cleared up, with many favorites losing. As a result, she was playing against a player ranked 67th in the world.
However, Swiatek was certainly aware of the fact that Schmiedlova from Slovakia bested former French Open champion, Barbora Krejcikova, and the likes of Beatriz Haddad Maia and Katie Boulter on her way to the bronze medal match.
Still, the Slovak's qualities can't be compared to the 'Queen of Clay' who was able to shake off the previous disappointment and focus her efforts on the bronze medal match.
Yet, Schmiedlova was able to surprise her early on. It was the Slovak player who got the first break of the match, leading 2-1 in the opening set. Sadly for her, it was also the last game of the first set that she won.
Swiatek didn't lose any more points on her serve in the first set, winning both of her service games to love, and on her opponent's serve, she was able to break every single time, winning the first set of the match 6-2.
It was clear that the top seed was in the full control of the match after the first set, still, she faced a 15-30 deficit on her serve in the third game, the same game that she was broken in in the first set.
That didn't repeat in the second set of this match, as once again, the Polish player went on a five-game winning streak, which meant that she was able to win the match easily 6-2, 6-1.
That means that despite the massive semi-final heartbreak, Swiatek will still leave Paris with a bronze medal around her neck, and even though it wasn't the medal that she wanted to win, she will certainly look back on this achievement and see it as a success.
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