Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz stayed on collision course for a golden showdown at the Paris Olympics as they surged through to the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Djokovic, probably in the last-chance-saloon as far as his Olympic title hopes go, beat Germany’s Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 to reach the last eight at the Games for a record fourth time.
The 21-year-old Alcaraz, seeded two, then followed suit with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Russian Roman Safiullin.
Women’s singles top seed Iga Swiatek became the first player from Poland to reach the semi-finals in Olympic tennis although she was given a fright by American Danielle Collins who retired with a medical issue when losing 4-1 in the third set.
With Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas set to play Djokovic in the last eight and Norway’s sixth seed Casper Ruud through to play Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, the men’s singles draw is still loaded with familiar faces.
But the women’s singles continued to throw up surprises with Anna Karolina Schmiedlova stunning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-2 to become the first Slovak since Miloslav Mecir in 1988 to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic singles.
Zheng Qinwen ended the stellar career of Germany’s Angelique Kerber in a titanic tussle to emulate Li Na who reached the semi-finals of singles at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Zheng failed to convert three successive match points in the third set as veteran Kerber clung on grimly in stifling heat but eventually prevailed 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(6) — collapsing to the red clay in disbelief as Kerber’s last shot struck the net.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Kerber announced last week she would retire after the Paris event.
Swiatek was in control as she won the opening set 6-1 but went off the boil to lose the second 6-2 against an aggressive Collins. The Pole was struck by a ball early in the decider but regained her composure to lead 4-1, at which point eighth seed Collins decided she could not continue.
