Swiatek rediscovers poise to win bronze medal for Poland

World No 1 Iga Swiatek bounced back from the disappointment of missing out on a place in the final as she beat Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-0 to win the bronze medal in the women’s singles at the Paris Olympics.

In tears after letting a golden opportunity slip through her fingers against Qinwen Zheng of China on Thursday, the Pole was back to her devastating best on clay as she marched to glory at Roland-Garros. She’s the first ever Polish player to win an Olympic medal.

Schmiedlova had beaten both Jasmine Paolini and Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova to reach the semis but after losing out to Donna Vekic, she found Swiatek far too strong.

The stress of the semi-final seemed to be gone and the four-time French Open champion broke for 4-2 in the first set and then ran away with the rest of the match to claim her first Olympic medal.

Zheng and Vekic will meet in the women’s singles final on Saturday.

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