Zheng Qinwen beats Donna Vekic to win historic Olympic tennis gold for China

The 21-year-old sixth seed was given raucous support by a sizeable Chinese contingent inside Roland Garros’ Court Philippe Chatrier and responded with a composed performance.

Vekic, herself bidding to become Croatia’s first Olympic singles champion, battled hard to try to turn around the match but failed to capitalise on her opportunities.

Zheng was not at her sparkling best but raised her game when required to land the biggest prize of her career.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Zheng reached match points as Vekic drove a backhand wide and finished it off with a well-placed forehand winner before falling to her back with joy.

China’s only other gold medal in Olympic tennis came in 2004 when Li Ting and Sun Tian-Tian won the women’s doubles in Athens while the best previous singles performance was Li Na’s run to the semi-finals in 2008, although she missed out on a medal.

Zheng, runner-up at the Australian Open this year, now looks capable of scaling the same heights as Li Na who claimed two Grand Slam titles during her illustrious career.

“Nothing can describe my feelings right now,” Zheng told Eurosport on court before the medals ceremony.

“It’s unreal, I was hoping to get a medal for China and I made it, I got the gold. I did everything I could.”

Her victory completed a memorable week for China on the Parisian clay after Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen claimed the silver medal in the mixed doubles the previous evening.

Zheng, who men’s finalist Novak Djokovic describes as his favourite female player, began the week in devastating fashion, beating former French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-6 6-0.

She had to dig deep in long three-set epics against Emma Navarro and Germany’s Angelique Kerber before stunning hot favourite Iga Swiatek to give herself a shot at gold.

The vastly-experienced Vekic presented a formidable obstacle in the final but Zheng started quickly to lead 3-0 and managed to stay in control by coming through some edgy games.

“I fought every single match, I feel like I had special energy and lots of support. My country will be proud and my family who I know will be screaming at home by the TV,” she said.

Poland’s Swiatek finished with the bronze medal after beating Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2 6-1 on Friday.