Olympics24 : Sindhu, Swaitek crashes out , Djokovic, Alcaraz move to semi finals

 

In badminton  PV Sindhu's hopes of winning another medal have come to an end. She was unable to secure her third Olympic medal, losing to China's He Bingjiao on Thursday with scores of 21-19, 21-14.   India thus are deprived of one medal win as Sindhu was expected to be one of their hopes. 

Meanwhile in a surprising turn of events in women's tennis at the Olympics, world number one Iga Swiatek was knocked out in the singles semifinals. The three-time French Open champion, known for her prowess on clay courts, was defeated by China's unheralded tennis player Zheng Qinwen in straight sets (6-2, 7-5).

Swiatek, who had won the French Open three times, is often referred to as the "Queen of Clay." She had the opportunity to compete on her favorite surface at the Olympics. Before the games began, experts were predicting that Swiatek would win the gold in women's singles. It was hard to believe that anyone could beat her on the familiar Philippe Chatrier Court, but that is exactly what happened in the semifinals.

Zheng not only defeated Swiatek but completely outplayed her. In the third game of the first set, Zheng broke Swiatek's serve. The Polish player seemed unable to believe what was happening. Although Swiatek broke Zheng's serve in the next game, Zheng broke Swiatek's serve again in the fifth game. Swiatek struggled with her first serves, which Zheng capitalized on. Once she gained the lead, Swiatek could not catch up. Zheng broke Swiatek's serve once more and won the first set 6-2.

To stay in the match, Swiatek needed to win the second set, and she started off strong by winning four consecutive games and breaking Zheng's serve twice. It looked like she was set to avenge her first set loss, but Zheng had other plans. In the fifth game, Zheng broke Swiatek's serve. Like Swiatek, Zheng won four consecutive games, leveling the score from 0-4 to 4-4. In the eleventh game, Zheng broke Swiatek's serve again to take the lead.

To remain in the match, Swiatek needed to break Zheng's serve in the next game and had a break point opportunity but failed to capitalize on it. Zheng held her serve, and with a fearless performance, she won the set and the match, sending Swiatek home. On Wednesday night, Rafael Nadal was knocked out of the clay court, and now the Queen of Clay has also been eliminated.

Meanwhile Carlos Alcaraz & Lorenzo Musetti moves to the semis with straight set wins over Tommy Paul & Alexander Zverev respectively in the mens tennis . 

In the evening clash Novak Djokovic overcame a hurt on his injured knee in the 2nd set to beat Stephanos Tsitipas  6-3, 7-6 in straight sets . Djokovic looked in solid touch to beat Tsitipas in the first set but had to fight hard to dig himself out of trouble in thd second set before winning it in the tiebreaker. Djokovic will meet Musetti in the semis.