China's Zheng Qinwen stunned top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland with a 6-2, 7-5 victory on Thursday in the women's singles tennis semifinals in Paris. Her achievement surpasses Li Na's fourth-place finish and makes her the first Chinese player to reach the women's singles final at the Olympic Games.
"This means everything to me because finally I broke the stage I always have in my head, I finally showed I could beat the world No1 on her best surface, at Roland-Garros – it really does mean everything," she said.
"I feel more than just happy — happy isn't enough to describe how I feel," said Zheng, who played back-to-back three-hour matches to make the semifinal. "If you ask me to play three hours more for my country, I could do it again."
Zheng, 21, was defeated by Swiatek, four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, in all of their six previous meetings.
"It was an amazing match. To beat Iga is not easy as it's an important event for her," Zheng said.
Zheng believed that she played better than in the previous match against German veteran Angelique Kerber.
"Yesterday was a more emotional match, more consistent, patient. But today the tennis was more complicated because Iga, you know, she had more power and then she takes her chance when she can," she said.
No 6 seed Zheng will face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia in the gold medal match on Saturday.
"I always wanted to be one of the athletes who can get a medal for China, for our country, and right now I'm one of them. But I know the fight is not over. It's not the end," she said, "I've made history already, but I don't want to stop here."
Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen also made history in their mixed doubles tennis debut, defeating the Dutch pair Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof 2-6, 6-4, 10-4 to reach the final.
This marks the first time China has advanced to the final in this event.
Their opponents in Friday's final will be the winners of the semifinal match between the Czech duo Tomas Machac and Katerina Siniakova and Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada.
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