Zheng Qinwen takes gold at Paris Olympics by defeating Donna Vekic

China has never been a hotbed of greatness in singles in tennis. The nation has had some success in doubles at the Olympics previously, and won gold in women's doubles in 2004, but singles has mostly been a lost cause. That was until Zheng Qinwen's run at the Paris Olympics.

The first set was relatively easy for Zheng. She was playing crisply and with quite a bit of calm, but her opponent, Donna Vekic, was letting Zheng run away with the set. The Croatian was hitting error after error, many times when she was not under duress, and was struggling to hold serve in any of her games.

Zheng wasn't as much winning the first set as Vekic was simply losing the set. Zheng needed to keep playing her points and waiting for a Vekic mistake. She took the set 6-2.

Zheng Qinwen beats Donna Vekic in straight sets to win gold at the Paris Olympics

The second set started much the same as Zheng got an early break to take a 2-0 lead and she could likely already start to feel the gold medal around her. The question was whether the young player - Zheng is only 21 years old - would begin to sense the enormity of the situation. China is a proud country with a long history but Zheng would be the first to ever win gold in singles.

Vekic then got a break right back and finally held serve after 10-plus minutes in the next game. When Vekic was right, she was very good and at times overpowered Zheng. The issue was that she had been overhitting the ball and seemed incapable of correcting the situation. Still, just as Zheng struggled with Aryna Sabalenka's power in the final of the Australian Open, when Vekic could get the ball in, she could dictate the course of any game.

What might have finalized the match for Zheng was a key hold she had after Vekic evened the set at 2-all. Vekic forced Zheng to 30-all and the Croatian appeared to have all the momentum. Then Zheng had two perfect serves to take the game. Mentally, those were points she had to have.

Zheng was able to get a late break of Vekic by keeping her poise, playing remarkable defensive tennis, and not letting Vekic's sudden uptick in emotion get the better of her. The Chinese player won the final set 6-3, and in doing so, her nation's first gold medal ever in singles at the Olympics.

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