Zheng beats Vekic, claims 1st tennis singles gold for China

Zheng Qwinen claimed China’s first tennis singles gold medal in Olympic history by defeating Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 in the 2024 Paris Games women’s final Saturday.

The 21-year-old Zheng displayed the same powerful serves and groundstrokes she used to eliminate No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and now has the biggest title of her career.

Not that Zheng hasn’t shown plenty of promise already. She is ranked No. 7, after all, and was the runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka at the hard-court Australian Open in January.

This, though, could make her a real star in her country. International Tennis Hall of Fame member Li Na is the only Chinese player to win a Grand Slam singles title - at the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open - and served as inspiration for Zheng when she was a kid learning the sport.

Meanwhile, Matt Ebden’s 2024 Olympics started with his first singles match in more than two years - a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Novak Djokovic as a fill-in after other players pulled out of that event. A week later, back in his element as a doubles player, Ebden will leave France as a gold medalist with partner John Peers.

Ebden and Peers won Australia’s second tennis gold medal in Summer Games history on Saturday, beating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1), 10-8 in a match tiebreaker in the men’s doubles final. Olympics doubles uses a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker in place of a traditional third set.

“I knew this would come up,” Ebden said when asked about the way his Summer Games began. “Last night, I did think of it. I was actually dreaming of an Instagram post, like: ‘How it started; how it’s going.’ ... Swipe right, and there’s a gold-medal photo.”

Ebden and Peers trailed by a set and 4-2 in the second before breaking Ram’s serve to begin the comeback. Their tennis gold follows the one won for Australia by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in men’s doubles at Atlanta in 1996.

“It’s trippy. It’s more than a dream. I didn’t even dream of winning a gold medal growing up or whatever,” Ebden said. “The last few years, I had great success on the doubles court. It gave a lot of belief and confidence coming in here.”

He is a 36-year-old doubles specialist who has been ranked No. 1 in that event and has won two Slam trophies in men’s doubles and one in mixed. In singles? Until facing Djokovic - “My main goal in that match was just not to get injured,” Ebden joked Saturday - he hadn’t competed in a tour-level, main-draw singles match since June 2022.

Djokovic said he thinks the rules should be changed so someone like Ebden does not wind up on the court in singles at the Summer Games.

Ebden hasn’t even had a singles ranking since he was No. 970 the week of May 29, 2023. But he already was in Paris to compete in men’s doubles and so that made him available for the singles competition when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark pulled out because of a wrist injury.

When Saturday’s match ended, the children of Peers and Ebden climbed out of the stands to hug their fathers. Ebden draped a replica gold medal around the neck of his son, whom he then tossed in the air and caught.

Agencies