By Martyn Herman
PARIS (Reuters) -Zheng Qinwen became the first Chinese player to win an Olympic tennis singles gold medal when she held off Croatia's Donna Vekic for a 6-2 6-3 win in a tense final on Saturday.
The 21-year-old sixth seed was given enthusiastic backing by a sizeable Chinese contingent inside Roland Garros's 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 come through several lengthy games 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.
"This Olympic journey has not been easy, I had a lot of tough fights and some matches I nearly lost," Zheng told reporters. "But there is a strength holding me. I never give up.
"For the final today the atmosphere was incredible, all the Chinese fans yelling for me. Two years ago that would have been pressure but today I kept calm and handled it well."
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 knew were screaming at home by the TV," she said.
PRODUCTIVE SUMMER
For Vekic it has been a productive summer with a Wimbledon semi-final and an Olympic final -- even if there was disappointment at missing out on gold.
"To win a medal for Croatia was a lifelong dream," the 28-year-old said. "I wanted gold but still so happy and so proud.
"She was better than me today and deserved it."
Poland's Swiatek finished with the bronze medal after beating Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2 6-1 on Friday.
Earlier on Saturday Australia celebrated its first Olympic tennis gold medal since 1996 as Matthew Ebden and John Peers came from a set down to beat Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram 6-7(6) 7-6(1) 10-8.
"I think this medal doesn't go in the cabinet, it just goes around my neck. I sleep with it on and keep it on me. I don't think it goes anywhere," Ebden, whose tournament began with a singles thrashing at the hands of Djokovic, said.
Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul also finished on the doubles podium, earning the bronze by beating Czech duo Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek 6-3 6-4.
Italy's Lorenzo Musetti later beat Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4 1-6 6-3 to win the men's singles bronze.
Sunday's men's final day sees Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz go for gold.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon and Christian Radnedge)
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