Iga Swiatek has responded to claims that she was being ‘insincere’, after a tense exchange with Danielle Collins following her retirement from their Olympic quarter-final match.
Swiatek was 6-1 2-6 4-1 up, before Collins told the umpire that she could no longer continue due to injury and retired from the singles draw in Paris.
Following informing Swiatek of the retirement, there was a seemingly awkward conversation between the pair when shaking hands, with Swiatek looking surprised at what she had been told by Collins.
After the match, Collins revealed to media what she had told Swiatek, “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.
“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.”
Many had speculated that some of the animosity between the pair had come after Swiatek took a lengthy bathroom break following losing the second set.
That one had to hurt for Iga Swiatek 🤕
And despite labelling the situation as ‘strange’, Swiatek did not appear to want to fuel the fire and paid credit to her American opponent, who will be retiring at the end of the season.
“It was quite strange. A rather unusual situation on the court for me,” claimed the world No.1. “I don’t want to go into details because this is her last year on tour and I just want to wish her all the best.
“I didn’t have a chance to do it at that time. As she is ending her career, I know it must have been a hard moment for her as well. I just wish her all the best for the future.”
Collins did go onto play doubles later on yesterday alongside Desirae Krawczyk, being beaten by the Ukrainian twins Lyudmila and Nadiia Kichenok.
Looking to move on from the situation, Swiatek will continue her bid for an Olympic medal when she plays Qinwen Zheng for a place in the gold medal match in Paris.
It’s Iga Swiatek v Qinwen Zheng for a place in the gold medal match 🥇
Who wins? 👇#Paris2024 | #Olympics | #tennis pic.twitter.com/Dc2V5QU36i
— ITF (@ITFTennis) August 1, 2024
Inside the baseline…
It really was a truly bizarre and awkward exchange between Iga Swiatek and Danielle Collins, in what seemed like quite harsh words from the American. It would be fair to say that some of the American women have not covered themself in glory over the last couple of days, with Emma Navarro also being involved in a incident with Swiatek’s next opponent Qinwen Zheng. However, sometimes in the heat of the moment things get said and Swiatek appears happy to move on from it, so everyone else also should.