GOLD MEDAL MATCH: Qinwen Zheng (China) vs Donna Vekic (Croatia)
Saturday, August 3, 2024
Qinwen Zheng -250 / Donna Vekic +180 Click Here for the Latest Odds
Where to Watch: USA: NBC, UK: BBC Sport, Australia: Nine, Africa: Supersport
Qinwen Zheng will play Donna Vekic in the final of the 2024 Paris Olympics women's singles tennis tournament. The match is scheduled for Saturday, August 3, 2024. Here's our Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic prediction. This article will also feature Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic pick.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Preview
Qinwen Zheng authored the upset of the tournament by knocking out top seed Iga Swiatek. She is guaranteed to become the first Chinese player to win a tennis medal at the Olympics. Zheng is enjoying the best season of her career, highlighted, by reaching a maiden Grand Slam final in January at the Australian Open.
She's also part of the WTA's Top 10 and has stayed there since breaking through. On Thursday, she eliminated Swiatek, who was undefeated at Roland Garros in three years. She took advantage of an off-color World No. 1 whose serve deteriorated during the match. Zheng, by contrast, was decisive and effective on return, breaking serve six times.
Donna Vekic is vying to make Croatian history by winning a gold medal. By defeating Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the second semifinal, she became the first player from her country to reach the Olympic singles final. The match took 67 minutes and 16 games to decide.
In the victory, Vekic hammered six aces to three double faults. She landed 64% of first serves. Vekic won 79% first-serve points (23/29) and 63% second-serve points (10/16). Vekic did not face a single break point on her own delivery during the match but converted four of six break points on the Slovak's serve.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Head-To-Head
• The head-to-head is tied at 1-1. They last met at the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy, where the Chinese player won in three sets.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Prediction
The Olympics women's tennis tournament has delivered in terms of sheer drama, excitement, and history. Both these two women can chart their way into record books as the first tennis gold medalist (singles) of either China or Croatia. Vekic deserves enormous credit for reaching here after that Wimbledon heartbreak. And to imagine that her career would have been over even before that when she contemplated retirement is quite surreal. Still, I feel she'll come up short in the final as she is taking on the player of the tournament, who happens to be the comeback queen at the Olympics. I'd be happy to take Qinwen for the gold.
Nur’s Pick Qinwen Zheng in three sets
AUTHOR: Nur Said
