Vekic races past Schmiedlova to guarantee herself an Olympic medal

Donna Vekic defeated Anna Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-0 in the semi-final of the women’s singles Olympics tennis event at Roland-Garros in Paris on Thursday evening.

The Croat put together her most complete performance of the tournament so far to defeat the world No 67 and book her place in the gold medal match against Qinwen Zheng this weekend.

Vekic has now won 13 of her last 15 matches, with the 28-year-old making the semi-finals of Wimbledon in July as well.

She now becomes the first Croatian player to reach the final of the Olympics singles.

Vekic pulls away after tight start

World No 21 Vekic came into this semi-final with a question mark over how she’d perform, give how tough her quarter-final was.

On Wednesday, she had gone to a deciding set tiebreak against Marta Kostyuk, winning 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(8) to back up her shock defeat of Coco Gauff earlier in the week.

Sure enough, Vekic began a little sluggish, and was slower around the court with a few uncharacteristic errors in the opening games.

The No 13 seed found her rhythm in the fifth game, however, breaking Schmiedlova’s serve to grab a 3-2 advantage in the first set.

Her Slovakian opponent hung tough though, sticking with Vekic and forcing her to work for every point across the opening 40 minutes.

With the set balanced at 5-4 deuce on Vekic’s serve, it seemed as though the Phillipe-Chatrier crowd were going to be in for another arm-wrestle in the women’s singles.

That is, until Vekic stepped things up a gear, winning the next nine points in a row to wrest control of the contest.

From 5-4 deuce in the first set, Vekic only lost five more points across the remainder of the match, closing it out 6-4, 6-0.

Masterclass from Vekic on the forehand

Key to Vekic’s domination was her forehand. The No 13 seed was hitting the ball sweetly, reeling off baseline winners and coming out on top of virtually every elongated exchange in the match.

Sprinkled in amongst Vekic’s baseline play was crafty use of the drop shot, which garnered her several of her 26 winners accrued over the one hour, five minute clash.

Add in some strong serving (64 percent first serves made and six aces), and it’s no surprise that Vekic pulled away with the match in the manner she did.

Waiting for Vekic in the gold medal match is Zheng, who overcame top seed Iga Swiatek in impressive fashion earlier on Thursday. The Chinese player ended Swiatek’s 24-match unbeaten streak on the Parisian clay, ousting her 6-2, 7-5.

Earlier in the tournament, Vekic defeated Bianca Andreescu (6-3, 6-4), Coco Gauff (7-6(7), 6-2) and Marta Kostyuk (6-4, 2-6, 7-6(8)), while Schmiedlova had overcome Beatriz Haddad Maia (6-4, 6-4), Jasmine Paolini (7-5, 3-6, 7-5) and Barbora Krejcikova (6-4, 6-2).

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