Iga Swiatek has dismissed claims that the dig Danielle Collins took at her had any influence in a shock Paris Olympics semifinal loss, insisting she is a professional and knows how to handle those things.
If you remember well, a tense but also stunning moment happened after Collins retired while 1-4 down to Swiatek in their quarterfinal match at the Summer Games. After retiring due to an abdominal injury and stopping the Pole, the American appeared to say something that left the world No. 1 in disbelief.
Later, world No. 10 Collins called Swiatek “insincere” and shared that she felt the five-time Grand Slam champion was faking to be sorry over her injury.
“I told Iga she didn’t have to be insincere about my injury. There’s a lot that happens on camera, and there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma and come out and are one way on camera and another way in the locker room. And I just haven’t had the best experience, and I don’t really feel like anybody needs to be insincere. They can be the way that they are. I can accept that, and I don’t need the fakeness,” Collins said after the match.
Swiatek on if the Collins drama played any role in the Zheng loss
The following day, Swiatek returned to the court and suffered her first loss at Roland Garros since 2021 after Zheng Qinwen handed her a 6-2 7-5 loss.
“I’m a professional, and things like that don’t affect how I play tennis later on. To this day, I still don’t understand where her comment came from, and I decided there was no point in looking into it. I focused on myself,” Swiatek told SportoweFakty when asked if Collins shading her impacted her play versus Zheng.
During the Zheng match, Swiatek didn’t look like herself at all as she blasted 36 unforced errors en route to losing. But still, Swiatek left Paris with her first Olympic title after beating Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova in the bronze medal match.
