Svitolina-Vondrousova, Bencic-Rybakina into Tokyo 2020 semis

Elina Svitolina accepts she is the player to beat after going one round further than in Rio to reach the Olympic singles semi-finals at Tokyo 2020.

The world No. 6 – the highest seed to reach the women’s singles quarter-finals – will face Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova on Thursday following a 6-4 6-4 victory over Italy’s Camila Giorgi, while in the top half of the draw, Swiss No. 9 seed Belinda Bencic will take on Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, seeded No. 15, for a spot in the gold medal match.

For Svitolina, who has played almost 10 hours of tennis in sweltering conditions in Tokyo en route to the semi-finals, the prospect of securing Ukraine’s first ever Olympic tennis medal is tantalisingly close, but for now she is simply focused on her recuperation before Thursday’s final-four clash.

“For sure, it’s exciting, but I have to not think too much about that,” Svitolina said of the notion of winning a medal for her country, after reaching the Rio 2016 quarter-finals. “My goal is to focus on myself, my game and my recovery and be ready for tomorrow."

Vondrousova underlined her taste for an upset with victory over Naomi Osaka in the third round, before advancing to the semis when Spain’s Paula Badosa was forced to retire after losing the first set.

But having posted her first straight-sets win of the week in Wednesday’s early action, Svitolina insisted she would not be worried about the world No. 42 revelling in the role of underdog.

“You know when you are higher ranked everyone wants to beat you, and everyone is extremely motivated to beat you,” the No. 4 seed said. “I’ve had that for the past three or four years already, when I entered the Top 10: you step on the court, and everyone is just there to try to beat you.”

Asked how she is holding up physically in Tokyo, the 26-year-old laughed and said: “I’m surviving! After three three-set matches, we were doing lots of treatment last night until 1:00am to get my body ready for today.”

Vondrousova had recovered from 3-1 down to take the first set 6-3 against a wilting Badosa, who retired with heat illness following a lengthy medical time-out at the end of the opener. She was helped from the court in a wheelchair, and later withdrew from the mixed doubles draw alongside Pablo Carreno Busta, with French alternates Fiona Ferro and Pierre-Hugues Herbert taking their place to take on Poland Iga Swiatek and Luksaz Kubot in the first round.

“I think she was exhausted,” Vondrousova said of Badosa. “It’s sad the way it ended. For me it’s good that I have some rest now, but it’s sad to see her like this.”

Vondrousova was the youngest member of the Czech women’s singles quartet in Tokyo, all of whom shared a dormitory in the Olympic Village. The 22-year-old is now the last of them in contention for a singles medal, but insists her focus is simply fixed on her semi-final with Svitolina.

“It’s a dream, but it’s just the semi-finals,” she said. “I am playing Elina next, also in the heat, which is going to be tough. She’s a great player, so we’ll see. But I am just happy for now.

“We’ve played a couple of times – I beat her the last one in Rome, but that was on clay and it’s different. She’s a great player – she plays a little bit similar to me, so it’s going to be game-to-game, and it’s going to be tough mentally.”

Bencic booked her spot in the other semi-final with a stirring 6-0 3-6 6-3 victory over ROC’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to boost Switzerland’s prospects of claiming an Olympic tennis medal at a fourth consecutive Games.

The No. 9 seed, who is also still active in the women’s doubles alongside Viktorija Golubic, raced through the first seven games of her quarter-final clash with Pavlyuchenkova, who had dropped just seven games through three matches to reach the last eight.

“Against her, it's almost impossible to have the momentum on your side throughout the game because she often plays top or flop,” Bencic said when discussing Pavlyuchenkova’s fightback in the second set.

But with the Extreme Weather Policy in effect, a 10-minute break before the decider allowed her to regroup and “just try to make her life as difficult as possible,” before a delighted skip to the net after wrapping up victory in two hours, 13 minutes.

"I think my reaction was just the relief in the moment for the match," admitted Bencic, who later booked her place in the doubles semi-finals with Golubic. "It was really stressful, I felt – with her, you never really know what’s going to happen. 

"As much as I can play, I’m very happy about it – it means good results, so I’ll take it any time. I’m super-happy, I feel like the singles is helping me for the doubles, the doubles is helping me for the singles. And especially with Viktorija – wow, that felt very official! Vicky! – we’re really a team, and it feels really good as well in the singles."

Bencic will face Rybakina for a shot at gold after the Kazakh downed Spanish No. 1 Garbine Muguruza 7-5 6-1 with a rock-solid performance on serve, saving the solitary break point she faced during the 93-minute contest.

“My serve is a weapon,” said the 6’0” 22-year-old, who is feeling fully fit after a stop-start first half of the season with illness and injury. “I have a lot of ups and downs, but today I served really well. Actually, overall I played well – I didn’t have as many mistake as I’ve had before. I was really focused today and played good.

“It’s not easy to get in shape for such a big tournament – it’s once every four years. Physically I feel good, which is really good after I had such a tough beginning to the year. I’m really happy that here I’ve performed well.”

With Vondrousova and Rybakina through to the semi-finals, at least one Olympic debutant is set to leave Tokyo with a singles medal, while any medal for Ukraine or Kazakhstan would be their first in tennis in Olympic history.

“The Olympics is a very special event,” said Svitolina, who believes a gold medal would mean more for her fans back home than a Grand Slam title – not that she is looking beyond winning her next match.

“I'm really focused on any medal – I’ll try to be ready for anything that comes my way and try to be prepared for the conditions, for any opponents, and try to bring back a medal.”