Biles reclaims gymnastics all-around crown

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Simone Biles recaptured the Olympic all-around crown yesterday, seeing off Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade for her sixth Olympic gold and second in Paris. Biles, who famously withdrew from multiple events at the Tokyo Games three years ago with the disorientating “twisties”, followed up her team gold with the United States earlier this week. Defending Olympic champion Sunisa Lee took bronze.

The 27-year-old Biles became the first gymnast to reclaim the individual title, which she won in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. She capped her performance with another electrifying floor routine to Taylor Swift’s hit song “Ready for It”, her high-flying tumbling bringing the crowd to its feet. She scored 59.131 points to finish 1.199 ahead of Andrade with 21-year-old Lee sealing bronze with her floor routine having trailed in fourth going into the final rotation.

It was the first time that two women’s Olympic all-around champions have gone head-to-head chasing a second crown. The United States has now won the event six times in a row and a record seven times overall. Biles has now won nine Olympic medals including six golds. She could add three more in Paris as she competes in the apparatus finals on the vault, floor exercise, and balance beam.

Swiatek beaten

In tennis, Zheng Qinwen ended Iga Swiatek’s 25-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros to become the first Chinese player to reach an Olympic Games singles final as Carlos Alcaraz marched closer to a showdown with Novak Djokovic.

Defending champion Alexander Zverev, however, crashed out, losing his quarter-final to a fired-up Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. Seventh-ranked Zheng triumphed 6-2, 7-5 over world number one Swiatek and will face either Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia in the gold medal match. “I feel more than just happy -- happy isn’t enough to describe how I feel,” said Zheng, who had played back-to-back three-hour matches to make the semi-final.

“If you ask me to play another three hours for my country, I would. It was an amazing match. To beat Iga is not easy.” Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion at Roland Garros, went into the match at a sweltering Court Philippe Chatrier having not lost in Paris since 2021.

The 23-year-old had also defeated Zheng in all of their six previous meetings. However, she was hit off the court by the powerful 21-year old Australian Open finalist who broke the Pole three times in the opening set. Swiatek appeared restored by a 10-minute break and quickly stretched out to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Zheng battled back, retrieving both breaks for 4-4.

The Chinese star broke again for a 6-5 lead against the error-plagued Swiatek and claimed victory in the next game. By making the final, Zheng is the first Chinese man or woman to reach an Olympic singles gold medal match, bettering the run of Li Na who finished fourth in the women’s event at Beijing in 2008. China’s only Olympics tennis gold came thanks to Li Ting and Sun Tiantian in the women’s doubles at Athens in 2004.

‘About the fight’

Alcaraz, back at Roland Garros where he won a maiden French Open in June, became the youngest Olympic semi-finalist since Djokovic in 2008. The second seed saw off 13thranked Tommy Paul of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) after recovering from a breakdown in the second set and saving a set point in the tie-break.

“It’s all about the fight,” said Alcaraz, who was playing the day after he and Rafael Nadal suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss in what was probably the veteran’s final appearance at Roland Garros. The 21-year-old will face either Casper Ruud or Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in the final.

Champion Zverev out

Wimbledon semi-finalist Musetti stunned Zverev 7-5, 7-5 on the back of 20 winners as the 16th-ranked Italian continued his storming Olympics run. The 22-year-old was playing a tour final in Umag in Croatia on Saturday night and only arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, just hours before his first-round clash.

Musetti made the semi-finals without dropping a set as he became the first Italian man to reach the singles semi-finals since tennis returned to the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.