Iga Swiatek was puzzled when Danielle Collins called her 'insincere' after she tried to say something nice to her after their meeting at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The retiring American and the World No. 1 on the WTA Tour played a very heated clash at the Olympic Games in the French capital, which saw the players in a few separate incidents.
None of it was particularly bad, but they had a brief chat after the American retired from the match down 1-4 in the third set, and it was mostly brief because Collins cut it short.
Swiatek wanted to say something nice to the American player, at least according to her own words, after her opponent was forced to retire due to an injury, but the American didn't want to talk.
In the media availability after the match, Collins admitted that she felt the Polish player was being insincere with her concerns after the match, which was an interesting admission.
There is hardly any way to know whether she was truly insincere, but Collins's perception of it may suggest that something may have happened before. Swiatek was visibly puzzled by the brief conversation after the match.
The American told her to her face that she was being insincere. The World No. 1 was obviously stunned by that, and she was asked about the moment after the match.
"Well, I won't argue about it, because I've never done anything unpleasant towards her. I just wanted to congratulate her on her successful career, because we all know that this is her last year on tour."
"Honestly, I don't know what she meant because we didn't even have any interactions that could have caused her to say that to me."
The confusion Swiatek exhibited during the handshake was clearly present even after the match. Everything happened quickly, and she didn't have time to process it.
She expanded on the controversy about her time spent during the toilet break, which her opponent could have considered as too long, considering she spent eight minutes away from the court, when changing her outfit.
"Generally speaking, during tournaments, when we go out and have time to change our clothes, we are entitled to 5 minutes. Here I asked the lady who escorted me how much time I had. She didn't tell me that."
"She replied that they don't count time here and that I should just leave when I feel like it. So I used this time to change and cool down, and then I returned to the court."
"I honestly didn't know how much time had passed, but I didn't do anything against the rules, so I don't really know what the whole situation was about."
At the end of the day, Swiatek advanced to the next round while Collins is heading to a retirement at the end of this WTA season, so any grievances would quickly be forgotten as they simply wouldn't cross paths anymore.
It wasn't that problematic, to begin with, but it was interesting as Swiatek generally isn't a player who would clash with opponents on the tennis court. It happened in this match, but she's through to the semi-finals.
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