Iga Swiatek answers the question of whether Danielle Collins’ drama affected her play in her shocking Olympic loss

Iga Swiatek denies that Danielle Collins’ criticism of her had any influence on her shock semi-final defeat at the Paris Olympics. She says she is a professional and knows how to deal with these kinds of things.

If you remember well, there was a tense yet stunning moment when Collins was 1-4 down to Swiatek in their quarter-final at the Summer Games. After dropping out with an abdominal injury and stopping the Pole, the American seemed to say something that left the world number one in disbelief.

Later, Collins, the world number 10, called Swiatek “dishonest” and said she felt the five-time Grand Slam champion was pretending to regret her injury.

“I told Iga that she didn’t have to be dishonest about my injury. There’s a lot that happens on camera, and there’s a lot of people with a lot of charisma that come on camera one way and in the locker room another way. And I just haven’t had the best experience, and I don’t really feel like anyone has to be dishonest. They can be who they are. I can accept that, and I don’t need that fakeness,” Collins said after the game.

Swiatek on whether the Collins drama played a role in Zheng’s loss

The following day, Swiatek returned to the court and suffered her first loss at Roland Garros since 2021, after Zheng Qinwen inflicted a 6-2 7-5 defeat on her.

“I am a professional and such things do not affect how I play tennis later. To this day I still do not understand where her comment came from and I decided that there was no point in looking at it. I focused on myself,” Swiatek told SportoweFakty when asked if Collins’ shadow affected her game against Zheng.

During the Zheng match, Swiatek looked nothing like herself, making 36 unforced errors on her way to losing. But Swiatek still left Paris with her first Olympic title after beating Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova in the bronze medal match.