Queen Qinwen takes Olympic Gold — Final quotes from DC

Singles
Gold: Zheng Qinwen
Silver: Donna Vekic
Bronze: Iga Swiatek

Is this the true coming of age moment for Zheng Qinwen? After surviving an incredible battle against Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals, the Chinese stunned the tennis world by knocking out Iga Swiatek in straight sets. It was the first loss at Roland Garros for the Pole since 2021 and truly, the loss came out of nowhere given how well Swiatek was playing the first few rounds. I think that match was a prime example of why the Olympics are so special for tennis players and athletes — the medal rounds adds so much unique pressure and is a really interesting intangible that you cannot compare to a Grand Slam or regular season tournament.

The bottom half was the big revelation with Donna Vekic continuing her stellar midseason play by finding herself in the final. The semifinal surprise though was Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who has historically faltered in big matches and tournaments but found a way to knock out Jasmine Paolini to put herself in medal contention. Vekic’s power and craft was a bit too much for Schmiedlova and the Croat was able to swiftly put herself in the biggest final of her career.

Qinwen, who was just coming off of a clay title in Palermo, continued her success with a straight-sets victory. Though she was the better player, the moment did seem to get to Vekic who seemed to be on the verge of tears before the match was over. The bronze medal match was even more lopsided unfortunately, with Swiatek sweeping Schmiedlova to finish her week with a victory.

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Doubles
Gold: Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini
Silver: Mirra Andreeva/Diana Shnaider
Bronze: Cristina Bucsa/Sara Sorribes Tormo

Mixed
Gold: Katerina Siniakova/Tomas Machac
Silver: Wang Xinyu/Zhang Zhizhen
Bronze: Gabriela Dabrowski/Felix Auger-Aliassime

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This Week in Women’s Tennis

Paula Badosa won her fourth career title at the Mubadala DC Citi Open with a win over Marie Bouzkova in the championship, saying it was her most special win yet.

Congratulations to Angelique Kerber on an amazing career, bowing out in the most Kerber fashion — fighting tooth and nail until the end of a titanic three-setter

The last two Olympic champions, Belinda Bencic and Monica Puig, reflected on their victories and the impact it had on their careers.

Genie Bouchard opened up about managing professional pickleball on top of her tennis career and media endorsements.

Naomi Osaka shares how the Olympic experiences in Tokyo and Paris were different for her and hopes to make a third Games in Los Angeles.

There was a slight change to the WTA calendar with the WTA 500 in Zhengzhou moving to Ningbo and Ningbo’s WTA 250 sanction going to Hua Hin, Thailand for just this year.

Daria Saville shows off the extensive Olympic pin collection she was able to gather in Paris.

Serena Williams casually flexes her Olympic medals in this clip:

WTA Insider spoke to Emma Raducanu and Paula Badosa, who were practice partners as they both come back from injury.

The Stanford tennis team gave their thoughts on Challengers as Zendaya’s character played at the school in the movie.

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Tweet of the Week

Rennae Stubbs had me weak at the knees with this take on the viral pole vaulter:

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Five at The IX: Mubadala Citi DC Open

Q. With everything you’ve been through the last year, winning today, where does this rank in terms of wins and moments in your career? How much does this tournament here in DC now mean to you?

PAULA BADOSA: I think it’s maybe the most special moment, especially because I went through a lot, you know? As I said I think it was yesterday, a lot of people put me down on that. I had to fight through that and I had to keep believing on myself.

Especially I think who did a good job with that was my team, who was always there supporting me and believing in me. I think this moment for me, it’s one of the most special ones in my career. Of course, Indian Wells will always be there, but it’s a different situation.

I think here I fought a lot myself and my thoughts. I think that’s one of the biggest wins of, yeah, my career.

Q. When you think about where you were a year ago, now you’re a champion for the first time in two years, what does that mean to you? How do you plan on using this as a springboard?

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, one year ago I was in the couch, so it’s a big difference now. Now I’m an athlete again (smiling). Yeah, I mean, winning a title after two years…

What means a lot is I played four finals and I won the four of them. That’s what I had on my mind today also in the third set. I’m like, Paula, you’re capable of doing this in another final. That would push me a lot today.

Well, I think now I’m in a place, a really good place. Even before the tournament I was feeling good, I was feeling confident. I think I needed to win something, a big title for me, because like my personality, I’m not very – how can I say – I’m not happy always with finals and semifinals. I want to win titles.

I’m very perfectionist. Of course, that sometimes brings me down, but also in important moments I think it gives me that extra.

Yeah, I felt I needed this moment very much.

Q. What are you most proud of from the week?

MARIE BOUZKOVA: Well, I think overall just with my fighting spirit and just trying to stay mentally tough. I think there were a lot of challenging moments throughout this week, starting in the first round.

Today, obviously after losing the first set, I’m happy that I kept fighting and trying to find the way. Eventually I did get into my rhythm and started to feel a lot better.

I think it was a great final in the end. I think I’m most pleased with that, just being able to adapt every single match to different opponent, then just staying mentally tough.

Q. Your third title together. What makes this such a formidable pairing?

TAYLOR TOWNSEND: I think for us, we have played for so many years together. Asia and I are really good friends off the court. I think when we step on the court, it transfers. There’s a comfortability level between us where we can kind of have conversations, be like, I’m playing terrible. Just be open and honest with each other to kind of be more vulnerable. That allows us to be free to have that communication.

Today I think that showed in the match. Like, I wasn’t playing great, and Asia was playing great. She was holding us up. In the tiebreaker I was able to come through and we were able to play good tennis together.

For us, it doesn’t really matter how long it’s been that we haven’t played together. Because we’re such great friends off the court, that comfort level comes in. There is a plan. We just kind of fall into rhythm.

We’ve played together for so many years and so many times have won matches, lost matches. We’re very comfortable with each other, in each other’s game.

From the first point that we played together, we’re like, We know how we play as a team. We were able to really fall back into that place and it ended up working out.

Q. Have you been surprised with the results, Zheng Qinwen and Vekic being in the final?

ARYNA SABALENKA: I don’t want to say something bad about the players. Honestly, of course, I expected Iga to win a gold medal. It’s Paris. That’s her place. That’s what my expectation was.

But girls are playing incredible tennis. I think this final going to be be really cool to watch. Yeah, I’m probably — not probably – I’m going to watch the final if I’m not going to play my match. I’m sure this is going to be really great battle.