2024 Paris Olympics preview: Zheng Qinwen versus Donna Vekic

Donna Vekic has won 13 of her last 15 matches. Her reaction after the win against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova was lovely. After the heartbreak at Wimbledon, it is nice to see Vekic have this great run at the Paris Olympics. One couldn't tell Vekic played a marathon against Marta Kostyuk by the way she dismantled Schmeidlova in the semifinals. Vekic's breakthrough was at the French Open in 2019. She may have a preference for grass, but when she plays like this, the surface doesn't matter.

What an impressive amount of accolades she has added in the last month. 13 years on tour and suddenly Vekic has a glorious summer with her first Grand Slam semifinal in singles at Wimbledon and will now leave the Paris Olympics with a Silver Medal as a minimum. "All good things come to those who wait" is the saying that comes to mind.

It's been a long road for Donna Vekic who made two WTA finals as a teenager and seemed headed to the top 10. It's so good to see an attacking and exciting player like her finally find success. She has far too many runner-up trophies in her career and it would be a fairytale run if she could win a Gold Medal for Croatia on Saturday.

Zheng Qinwen is on her own fairytale run

Coming off a successful title defense in Palermo two weeks ago, the 21-year-old from China is now riding a nine-match win streak. Initially in the rivalry between Qinwen Zheng and Iga Swiatek, despite Swiatek winning all their matches, it felt like Zheng always had her chances to trouble Swiatek, and many thought she would upset her sooner or later and that's what she has done.

What a place to get your first win over a world No. 1. Zheng was a couple of points away from losing in the previous rounds and now, she is in the Olympics final, defeating the top player and huge favourite.

Zheng played far better than Swiatek and avoided the errors that she is known for. Outside of the start of the second set, Zheng played such a composed and smart match. She regrouped beautifully after going down 0-4 in the second set, so kudos to her. Played great under pressure as well, especially saving those breakpoints towards the end.

One of if not the smartest matches I’ve seen Zheng play. She changed the pace and rhythm a lot and made Swiatek generate her own pace in many rallies. Her fitness is also impressive given how much tennis she's played here.

A huge week for her and Chinese tennis, not to mention her status in China. You could see what it meant to Zheng at the end of her semifinal win - for a Chinese athlete, the Olympics are bigger and more renowned domestically than a Slam.

If she brings a Gold Medal home, in tennis, the king of racket sports (when China often dominated most other racket sports from badminton to ping pong), something China has been envisioning and building since the early trailblazing days of Li Na, she’ll be quite the superstar, if she wasn’t heading there already.

Key points in the fight for the Gold Medal

Donna Vekic will be less nervous in the final as she has the Silver medal already so at the end of the day she won't be a loser even if she loses. Also, beating Marta Kostyuk the way she did showed a lot of mental toughness from her side and she was clutch against Schmiedlova as well.

Zheng has much more pressure to deliver as the higher seed and the favourite, her heroics in the last couple of matches and the weight and expectation of her nation behind her. Vekic is the underdog which can help her relax.

Head-to-head is 1-1 (both indoor hard) in 2021 (straight sets win for Vekic in Courmayeur) and 2023 (3 sets win for Zheng in Zhuhai). Zheng can return unreturnable shots and cause errors. Vekic can play unreachable shots. Zheng's defense in the last two rounds has been impressive and it would be a key factor in this matchup. Whether Vekic can hit through Zheng's defense constantly, will be a major aspect.

If Zheng lets Vekic the time to dictate with her forehand then she will be in real trouble. The Chinese has to hit hard, or with depth and spin into Vekic's backhand, as that's the slightly vulnerable side for the Croatian player. Same for Vekic as she being an underdog can play relaxed tennis and use her trademark forehand inside-out to pummel Zheng's backhand constantly. Both players have deceptive drop shots and it would be interesting to see when, and how much they use it.

Both these players are battle-tested against formidable opponents and played incredible tennis to get to the final. Both are aggressive, flashy, ball-strikers and have divergent career trajectories which make them quite compelling. It's the Olympic final and the biggest match of their careers. Both have commented this week about leaving everything on the court. This has the makings of a fantastic match.

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