PARIS: Zheng Qinyuan became the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic singles final as he ended Yiga Sviatek's 25-match unbeaten run at Roland Garros on Thursday and Carlos Alcaras moved a step closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
However, defending champion Alexander Zverev was eliminated, losing to Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals.
No. 7 Chung beat world No. 1 Sviatek 6-2, 7-5 and will face Croatia's Dona Bekic or Slovakia's Anna Karolina Smiedlova in the gold medal match. “I feel more than happy. Happiness is not enough to describe how I feel,” said Chung, who played two three-hour matches to reach the semifinals.
“If they ask me to play three more hours for my country, I will do it. It was a great game. It's not easy to beat Iga.”
Swatek, a four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, came into the match on the sweltering courts of Philippe Chatrier, who had not lost in Paris since 2021.
The 23-year-old had defeated Jeong in all six of their previous fights.
But she was attacked off the court by the powerful 21-year-old Australian Open finalist who had taken pole position three times in the first set.
Swatec appeared to have recovered her strength thanks to the 10-minute break and quickly went ahead 4-0 in the second set, but Jeong fought back to win back both breaks to go ahead 4-4.
The Chinese star won the next game, going 6-5 ahead again against the error-prone Swiatek.
By reaching the final, Zheng became the first Chinese athlete, male or female, to reach an Olympic singles gold medal, breaking Li Na's record of fourth place in the women's event in Beijing in 2008.
China's only Olympic tennis gold medal came in 2004 in Athens, won by Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women's doubles.
Alcaraz, who returned to Roland Garros after winning his first title at the French Open in June, became the youngest Olympic semi-finalist since Djokovic in 2008.
The second seed came back from a break in the second set to save set point in the tiebreak before defeating No. 13 Tommy Paul of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
“It's all about the fight,” said Alcaraz, who was playing a day after suffering a heartbreaking doubles defeat to Rafael Nadal in what appeared to be the veteran's final appearance at Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old will face either Kasper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in the final.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti fired 20 winners to stun Zverev 7-5, 7-5, as the Italian, now ranked 16th in the world, continued his Olympic form.
The 22-year-old played his final match of the tour in Umag, Croatia, on Saturday night and only arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, just hours before the first round of play was scheduled to begin.
Musetti reached the semifinals without dropping a set, becoming the first Italian male player to reach the singles semifinals since tennis returned to the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.
The Italian will face either No. 1 seed Djokovic, who beat him in the Wimbledon semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas for the gold medal.
Djokovic, who is still trying to add Olympic gold to his 24 Grand Slam titles, faces Tsitsipas on the same court where he came from two sets down to beat the Greek in the 2021 French Open final.
The Serbian has made it through the first three rounds in Paris and is looking strong with an 11-2 record against Tsitsipas.
That record also includes a win in the 2023 Australian Open final, with Tsitsipas' last win over Djokovic coming in 2019.
Paul is expected to return to the court later on Thursday when he teams up with Taylor Fritz in the men's doubles quarterfinals, which could spell the end for Andy Murray's career.
Murray and Dan Evans will face the No. 3 seed from the United States for a spot in the semifinals.
Murray, the world number one and three-time Grand Slam singles champion, has already announced his intention to retire after the Olympics.
Evans, 37, and he have been through a rollercoaster Olympics so far, saving seven match points in the second round.
