Swiatek’s 25-match streak over but Alcaraz through

Polish top seed Iga Swiatek had her 25-match winning streak on the Paris clay ended by China’s Zheng Qinwen in the Olympics semi-finals.

Swiatek, 23, has won the past three French Opens at Roland Garros, but was beaten 6-2 7-5 by sixth seed Zheng at the same venue.

Losing there for the first time since 2021 was tough to take for the long-time world number one.

She was the overwhelming favourite to add Olympic gold to her five Grand Slam titles.

Swiatek was visibly upset when she tried to speak to broadcast journalists about an hour after the match and decided not to speak to their written counterparts – as she is entitled to do under Olympic rules.

Zheng, 21, lost in the Australian Open final earlier this year and now has a shot at earning the biggest title of her career.

The world number seven will play either Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in Saturday’s gold-medal match.

In the men’s singles, Spanish second seed Carlos Alcaraz continued his bid to become the youngest player to win the Olympic title.

The French Open and Wimbledon champion reached the semi-finals with a 6-3 7-6 (9-7) win over American ninth seed Tommy Paul.

Alcaraz, 21, will play either Norwegian sixth seed Casper Ruud or Canadian 13th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last four.

Later on Thursday, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic aims to keep his own golden dream going when he faces Greek eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Top seed Djokovic, 37, has won almost everything there is to win – except the Olympic title.

The 24-time major champion is aiming to set up a semi-final against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti – who he beat in the Wimbledon last four last month – after the 11th seed knocked out German third seed Alexander Zverev 7-5 7-5.