Iga Swiatek missed out on winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics at Roland-Garros. Serena Williams' ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs, feels it was like Rafael Nadal at his best not securing a gold medal at the venue.
Swiatek was an overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in the Olympic women's singles. Swiatek has won the French Open, held at Roland Garros, four times in the last five years.
Her rivals Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Swiatek in the Cincinnati Open semifinal on Sunday, and Elena Rybakina were also not playing at the Olympics, making many fans and analysts even more certain the Pole was destined to claim gold in Paris.
Sadly for Swiatek and her fans, she suffered a brutal loss to Qinwen Zheng in the semifinal. Although the Chinese player deserves credit for her performance, Swiatek was far below her brilliant best on clay.
The world No. 1 admitted the pressure of achieving her dream of winning a gold medal for her country had been hard to manage. It did seem like she froze against Zheng, something never seen before at Roland-Garros.
Swiatek is one of the hardest-working and mentally toughest players in tennis. She will undoubtedly learn from the pain of her Olympic semifinal loss and be stronger in the future. The five-time Grand Slam champion did at least secure a bronze medal.
Speaking on a recent episode of the "The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast," Stubbs admitted to being shocked by Swiatek's defeat but also praised Zheng, who went on to win the gold medal by beating Donna Vekic.
"But there was also a lot of pressure on Iga Swiatek to win the gold there. I mean that was like Rafa at his prime not winning a gold medal at Roland Garros, if they had the Olympics singles."
"So that was a bit of a shock but congrats to her (Zheng) and to get through and not only beat Iga but then to follow it up in the final against Donna Vekic who also had an amazing month of tennis for her – semis at Wimbledon, finals at the Olympics."
Stubbs also made an interesting comment about something she thought gave Zheng extra motivation to secure the gold medal. She referenced a heated ending in the 21-year-old's round of 16 victory against Emma Navarro, who said she did not respect Zheng as a competitor at the net.
Serena Williams' ex-coach thinks that moment helped Zheng achieve the incredible feat of overcoming Swiatek at her favorite venue and then triumphing again in the gold medal match against Vekic.
"She [Emma Navarro] spurred on Qinwen to go and win a gold medal which was phenomenal. I mean going through and winning the gold medal, beating Iga Swiatek – we didn’t think was possible to actually beat someone like Iga where we play the French Open, where she’s undefeated over the last three years and she’s won the tournament four times there. So that was a spectacular win for her."
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