Paris Olympics: Angelique Kerber's tennis career ends with defeat; Djokovic, Alcaraz progress

Paris, Aug 1
German tennis player Angelique Kerber’s playing career has ended with a defeat to China’s Qinwen Zheng in the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s singles quarterfinals at Court Philippe-Chartier. In the men's section, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, who battled in the Wimbledon final recently, continued their quest as they reached the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Angelique, a three-time Grand Slam champion and silver medalist in this event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had announced before the start of the Paris 2024 quadrennial event that this tournament would mark the finish of her professional tennis career.

In the quarter-final clash which lasted close to three hours, Angelique took the lead against Zheng by winning the first set 7-6 (4) in a tiebreak. But Zheng hit back and took the last two sets, finishing with a third-set tiebreak to win 6-7 (4), 6-4 and 7-6 (6).

Zheng becomes just the second Chinese tennis player after Li Na to make the women’s singles semi-finals at the Olympics. She will face the winner of the quarter-final between world number one Poland’s Iga Swiatek and USA’s Danielle Collins for a spot in the final and guarantee herself a medal.

Meanwhile, 24-time Grand Slam title winner Novak Djokovic's quest for a first Olympic gold medal continued after the Serbian defeated Germany’s Dominik Koepfer 7-5 6-3 at Roland Garros in the morning. The top seed will now meet Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash.

Spain's French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, who will be in doubles action later alongside Rafael Nadal, has also made it to the quarterfinals after being Roman Safiullin 6-4 6-2. He will face USA's Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic, the World No. 2 player in the ATP Rankings, is making his fifth Olympics appearance. Djokovic’s best result came in Beijing in 2008 when he won a bronze medal. The Serbian, who is eager to add an Olympic gold to his trophy cabinet, revealed he is loving his time in Paris.