Poland’s Iga Swiatek returns to Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova during their Bronze Medal match.
The WTA number one comfortably defeats Anna Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1. She was aiming for gold, but this bronze is her first Olympic medal. The gold final between Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic will be played on Saturday.
Iga Swiatek is the undisputed queen of clay so the prediction that she would win a medal in Paris 2024 was logical. The Polish tennis player has featured in five consecutive Roland Garros finals, winning four of them. She also has victories in Rome, Stuttgart and Madrid.
At the Olympic Games, she missed out on the gold medal after losing in the semi-finals to China’s Zheng Qinwen. But this was her first participation in the Games and she won the medal. The Slovakian Anna Schmiedlova has paid the frustration of the world number in a match that has not even lasted an hour. 6-2, 6-1 was the final score.
The emotions have returned to the surface for the Polish star. When she lost in the semi-finals, she was heartbroken at not being able to be Olympic champion on her favourite court. When she won the bronze, she cried again but this time for different reasons. On Saturday she will stand on the women’s individual podium. Her country’s anthem will not be played, but she takes a medal that for many is an unattainable dream.
On Sunday, the women’s doubles medals
The women’s doubles semi-finals also took place on Friday. The final will be contested by Italy’s Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini against a pair competing under a neutral flag at the Games. Russia’s Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider are two of 15 Russian athletes who have been granted permission to compete in Paris, but without representing their country. They have been required to have exemplary sporting behaviour, no links to doping cases and no support for the invasion of Ukraine. They are now assured of a medal.
The Italian pair, seeded third in the tournament, booked their place in the final by beating Czech pair Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour. From the moment Errani and Paolini broke their opponents’ serve to take a 4-3 lead in the first set, the match became much easier.
Andreeva and Shnaider also had a resounding victory. They were up against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes-Tormo, the number 8 seeds. In the first set they were not concentrated and they paid for it with a 6-1 set setback very quickly. In the second set, they were only able to extend the match a little bit, but they lost 6-2.
Slovakia and Spain will play for the bronze medal on Sunday at 12:00 local time. After that, the men’s singles final will be played and tennis will close in Paris with the final between Errani-Paolini and Andreeva-Shnaider.