Iga Swiatek blames being ‘worn-out’ and stressed due to her games happening ‘day by day’ as a reason for her loss to Qinwen Zheng

Iga Swiatek has blamed the scheduled and stress of continuous matches as a reason for her loss to Qinwen Zheng at the Paris Olympics.

Iga Swiatek blames being ‘worn-out’ and stressed due to her games happening ‘day by day’ as a reason for her loss to Qinwen Zheng

Iga Swiatek (Via Imago)

Qinwen Zheng’s tactical brilliance saw her get over her biggest hurdle yet at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She downed World No. 1 and four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek in straight sets in the semifinals.

After winning 25 straight matches at the venue, Swiatek seemed unstoppable and was the clear favorite to win her first Olympic gold. However, she had a bad day at the office and Zheng took full advantage of it.

After the match, Swiatek mentioned that her backhand, one of her strong suits, let her down. She also said that Zheng was able to capitalize on this to win 6-2, 7-5. 

I just had a hole in my backhand. It happens rarely because it is usually my most solid strike. I was not technically well positioned because of the stress and the fact that I played my games day by day. We didn’t have time to adjust that and work on that. I know that’s not the justification, but I tried to correct that during the match. Today it didn’t work at all. So, she used that to win the game.

Iga Swiatek told Eurosport Poland

The Pole also said that the tight schedule of the Olympic Games meant that she couldn’t fully work on that part of her game and get adjusted to the circumstances.

Qinwen Zheng overtakes Li Na to become the first Chinese player to reach the Olympics final

Qinwen Zheng started the year on a strong note in Australia by becoming the first Chinese woman to reach a Grand Slam final since Li Na in 2014. Unfortunately, she was defeated in straight sets by Aryna Sabalenka in Melbourne. 

Qinwen Zheng
Qinwen Zheng (L), Li Na (R) (Image via X)

After this, Zheng hadn’t had any remarkable results, until this week in Paris. She overcame Angelique Kerber in a marathon match to reach the semifinals and match Li Na’s best run at the Olympics. On August 1, she made history for China by dominating the World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and becoming the first Chinese player to ever reach the tennis final at the Summer Games.

Either Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova now stands between her and the gold medal.

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