Iga Swiatek’s preparations for her title defence at the French Open have taken another knock after she crashed out of the Italian Open in straight sets on Saturday.
The Polish world No.2 and defending champion in Rome fell 6-1, 7-5, to America’s Danielle Collins. A player she had beaten in eight out of their nine previous meetings on the Tour. It is the first tournament this year where Swiatek has failed to reach the quarter-finals and she has now lost eight matches in total. The same number of defeats she suffered throughout the entire 2024 season.
Swiatek has enjoyed high success in Rome, where she has won the title in three out of the last four years. It is only the third time she has lost a match at the tournament in six appearances. Her other defeats were to Arantxa Rus in 2020 and Elena Rybakina (due to retirement) in 2023.
To add to Swiatek’s woes, she will drop outside of the world’s top three next Monday, which will be her lowest position in the WTA rankings since March 2022. The 23-year-old could drop to as low as fifth if Jasmine Paolini wins the title.
“It hasn’t been easy. For sure, I’m doing something wrong. So I need to just regroup and kind change some stuff. I had some advice from the team. I’ll just try to do this.” Swiatek told reporters in Rome.
“I think I just wasn’t there present to fight and to compete. I focused on mistakes. It’s my mistake, and I’m not doing things right. The focus is on the wrong things from my side and I’ll try to change that.” She added.
Meanwhile, 2024 Rome semi-finalist Collins now has 16 wins over top 10 players in her career. She achieved the victory despite getting less than half (48%) of her first serves in and producing six double faults. Speaking about her problems, Collins said she drew inspiration from former Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, who experienced similar issues during her career.
“Growing up, I watched a lot of Elena Dementieva. Elena Dementieva made a career for herself not making many first serves,” Collins said during her press conference. “That was a really tough shot for her. She had so many other special parts of her game that made her the player she was. She was athletic.
“Sometimes when I have a bad serving day I think about Elena Dementieva and all of the things she was able to achieve even when the serve or first serve wasn’t working well for her.”
As for the current form of her opponent, Collins refused to get drawn into a debate about whether Swiatek has become more vulnerable on the court compared to the past.
“I think there’s definitely some things that stand out,” she said.
“I don’t intend to visit those areas of her game or criticize what she’s doing. This isn’t the forum to do that.”
Collins will next take on the 16th seed and two-time former champion Elena Svitolina. Svitolina defeated Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in her latest match at the Foro Italico.
“I have always enjoyed playing in Rome,” Collins commented.
“I’ve missed a lot of clay court seasons throughout my career because of health challenges, injuries, this and that. It is one of my favorite surfaces to play on.
“It’s a part of the season I really do enjoy because I do think the clay is so special. It’s kind of nice on the body, as well – I’m not going to lie – compared to the hard courts.
“I’m just really embracing getting to get these matches on the clay. I really wish we had a longer clay court season.”
