With fearless hitting, Collins knocks out defending champ Iga Swiatek in Rome
Iga Swiatek lost her first main-draw match in Rome five years ago to Arantxa Rus. She was 18 years old. After that, she became virtually unbeatable, winning the title three of the past four years.
Heading into Saturday’s third-round match against No. 29-seeded Danielle Collins, Swiatek had won an astounding 21 of her past 22 matches at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia -- that’s a winning percentage of 91.3 -- second only to Chris Evert’s 92.3.
That was before Collins dug in and produced a stunning 6-1, 7-5 upset. The 31-year-old American had lost seven of eight previous matches against the five-time Grand Slam singles champion. From beginning to end, there was an unnerving clarity to Collins' game.
“Obviously, I played against Iga so many times,” Collins said in her on-court interview. “When you play that many close matches and also play your best tennis and lose -- you learn a lot.”
Collins finished with 32 winners, against only 15 unforced errors. Swiatek’s numbers were 15 and 22. Collins converted six of eight break point opportunities, while Swiatek was only 2-for-10.
And so -- incredible to imagine given the history – the four-time champion at Roland Garros will go into Paris without a title since last year’s romp through the French Open field. The unwavering confidence, the absolute conviction that has carried her at or near the top of tennis for three years seems to be gone.
It was the ninth defeat for Swiatek this season -- equaling her entire total from last year.
The loss also means the end of another milestone. After more than three years ranked No. 1 or No. 2, Swiatek will fall to No. 4 or No. 5 in the next PIF WTA rankings. Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are locked in ahead of her, and a Rome title for Jasmine Paolini would push Swiatek down one more spot.
For Collins, it was the first Top 10 win in more than a year, going back to last year’s Charleston event. It was also her third career win against a Top 2 player, following her defeats of Ashleigh Barty at Adelaide 2021 and Angelique Kerber at Australian Open 2019. She was 2-15 going in.
What happened, exactly? Look no further than Swiatek’s service game.
In the first set, she faced four break points and Collins won all of them. Twice, in that pressure-packed setting, Swiatek double faulted. In four games, she won only five points on her serve. After falling to Gauff in the semifinals at Madrid, Swiatek managed only a single game for the third time in five sets.
Those woes extended to the second set when Collins broke her for the fifth straight time.
“Iga, very simple … play to win,” her coach Wim Fissette implored during that game. “Put your energy into it -- play to win.”
In the fourth game, Swiatek held for the first time. In the sixth, there was a flicker of hope. Swiatek had a pair of mid-court balls but couldn’t keep them in the court. Down love-30, she navigated her way out of danger, winning the last four points to make it 3-all.
Serving at 4-5, Swiatek saved a match point. But it wasn’t to be enough.
Collins converted her third match point when a Swiatek backhand sailed wide.
