Paris 2024 tennis: Djokovic, Alcaraz, Zverev into men's singles quarter-finals as Swiatek reaches women's semis
Top three seeds Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev are into the quarter-finals of the men’s singles tournament at Paris 2024 after victories on Wednesday 31 July.
Djokovic and Alcaraz, seeking their first Olympic gold medals, are on a collision course should they survive their next two assignments for a potential mouth-watering final clash. Zverev would be happy to spoil their plans as he looks to become only the second man behind Andy Murray to defend a men's singles title.
Djokovic has been here before. In fact, he has reached the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games on three previous occasions and has yet to hang a gold medal around his neck.
Playing in the twilight of his unrivalled career, Djokovic is determined to add Olympic champion in front of his name. He already has a record 24 Grand Slams in his trophy case, including three on the Parisian clay at Stade Roland-Garros.
Djokovic had to work hard to win the tiebreaker in the first set but was in classic form in the second, winning five consecutive games to seal the victory to reach the last eight.
The 37-year-old will next face eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece for a shot at another semi-final appearance. Djokovic won the men’s singles bronze medal on his debut in Beijing 2008.
Alcaraz was in devastating form as he continued his spectacular run at this first Olympics with a third-round 6-4, 6-2 rout of Roman Safiullin.
The four-time Grand Slam winner will face Tommy Paul of the United States, where he will be looking to continue his successful run at Stade Roland-Garros. The 21-year-old is fresh off his maiden French Open title from last month.
Reigning Olympic champion Zverev kept his title defence alive on Wednesday with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.
In the women’s singles tournament, top seed Iga Swiatek continued her marauding run as she navigated past American Danielle Collins to make it into the semi-finals. Collins recovered from a 6-1 walkover to send the match into a three-set decider. Swiatek claimed a 6-1, 2-6, 4-1 win after Collins was forced to retire.
The Polish star is now two wins away from adding the Olympic title to her four French Open and one US Open title. She will meet Zheng Qinwen of the People’s Republic of China in their semi-final clash on Thursday 1 August.
Angelique Kerber went down fighting as she tried to delay her retirement with a gutsy display in a marathon quarter-final match against Zheng.
The match could have gone either way, but Zheng prevailed with a 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 win to come out on top in her second match in as many days that lasted longer than three hours.
Zheng follows in the footsteps of her hero Li Na becoming the second Chinese player to reach an Olympic singles semi-final. Li, who retired with two Grand Slam titles, reached the bronze-medal match in Beijing 2008 where she lost to Vera Zvonareva.
Meanwhile, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova claimed another major scalp, beating 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejčíková 6-4, 6-2. In doing so, she became the Slovakian player to reach the semi-finals at the Olympics since Miloslav Mecir men’s singles gold in Seoul 1988.