Chinese tennis players make history; nation tops medal tally with 11 golds

China's Zheng Qinwen stunned top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland with a 6-2, 7-5 victory on Thursday in the women's singles tennis semifinals in Paris. Her achievement surpassed Li Na's fourth-place finish and made her the first ever Chinese player to reach the women's singles final in the Olympics.

No 6 seed Zheng will face either Croatia's Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia in the gold medal match.

"I feel more than just happy — happy isn't enough to describe how I feel," said Zheng, who played back-to-back three-hour matches to make the semifinals. "If you ask me to play three hours more for my country, I could do it again."

Zheng, 21, was defeated by Swiatek, four-time French Open champion, at Roland Garros, in all of their six previous meetings.

"It was an amazing match. To beat Iga is not easy, as it's an important event for her," Zheng said.

On Thursday, Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen also made history by defeating Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands 2-6, 6-4, 10-4 in the mixed doubles tennis semifinals. The Chinese duo's opponents in the final will be decided by the result of a match between a Czech mixed doubles team and the Individual Neutral Athletes.

Before the Chinese tennis players' historic victories, Chinese shooter Liu Yukun and race walker Yang Jiayu, who hold world records in their respective disciplines, clinched the 10th and 11th gold medals for China at the Paris Games.

Liu, 27, scored 463.6 points in his Olympic debut to secure gold in the men's 50-meter rifle 3 positions final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, around 270 kilometers south of Paris. His victory marked the fourth gold medal for the Chinese shooting team at the Games.

"I'm very lucky, because the Olympics happened at a time when I'm in a good stage (of my career)," Liu said, adding: "Today, I did not perform as well as I did in the World Cup. I feel like my overall control is good and my mentality is good. I was not as nervous as I was during the initial competitions."

The shooter admitted that he was "influenced" by the audience, the cheering and the surroundings in general, but said he tried to get a grip on all distracting thoughts and stay focused during the competition.

"I just believed in myself and had a lot of confidence," he added.

Liu is making his Olympic debut much later than many would expect. Zhang Changhong, who won gold at the same event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was just 21. Though new to the Olympic stage, Liu secured his spot for the Paris Games as early as October 2022, during the World Championships in Cairo, Egypt.

In May, Liu set a world record with 468.9 points during the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Yang, 28, delivered another win for China just an hour after Liu.

On the first day of the athletics events at the Paris Games, she blazed to the finish line in 1:25:54 to secure gold in the women's 20-km race walk at the Trocadero.

This victory marks a significant turnaround for Yang, who finished 12th at the Tokyo Games. "Tokyo was very tricky for me, so I worked harder to make a comeback and get the best results in Paris," she said.

Yang's Paris win has extended China's dominance in the event.

The tradition of excellence began with Wang Liping's gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The 2012 Games in London saw an unprecedented sweep by Chinese athletes Qieyang Shijie, Liu Hong and Lyu Xiuzhi, who claimed gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Liu Hong further solidified her career with a gold medal at the Rio Games in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo. At the Paris Games, the now 37-year-old, who once held the world record with a time of 1:24:38, finished 21st.

liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn