Iga Swiatek moved into the semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it wasn't how she wanted to do it, after Danielle Collins was forced to retire from their match.
After enduring what was the toughest match at the Olympics for her so far, the Pole returned to her regular programming early in her match against the American player. Her third-round match against Xiyu Wang was an interesting case study about what happens when Swiatek gets pressed by a player who is having an extraordinary hitting performance.
We saw it earlier this year against Naomi Osaka, who blasted over 50 winners in three sets against the Polish player and still failed to win the match. She had match point, something which Wang didn't have, but the Chinese player gave Swiatek similar problems with her good hitting.
Collins is certainly the type of player who can hit really well, and she's done it many times this year. However, the match didn't start too well for her against the World No. 1 as the American missed a bit too much, while Swiatek didn't repeat the mistake of starting slow as she did against Wang.
She took it to Collins early and broke for a 3-0 lead in the opening set, which allowed her to settle into her rhythm. In fairness, she doesn't need to settle because she's been historically good at Roland Garros, but it's always better to start good and fast as opposed to slow and bad.
Collins stopped the bleeding with a solid service game to make it 1-3 from her perspective, but the damage was already done. She was down and needed to press even more in hopes of getting it back.
That's not ideal because Swiatek is just very good at grinding out those types of matches because very few players are capable of sustaining it for a long duration of the match.
Collins did well with applying some pressure on her opponent, but she wasn't able to break back immediately. In fact, it was Swiatek who continued her rampage to add yet another break and take a 5-1 lead.
She was just outhitting Collins, who was struggling a lot early on in this match. She wasn't serving well or hitting the ball well. In fairness, Swiatek did an excellent job of pushing her around the court, which made things a lot easier for her.
Collins showed a bit of a spark at 5-1 when she created three consecutive break chances, but she couldn't convert as the miserable day at the office continued. Swiatek was just too strong and too consistent for her, and it left her visibly frustrated, as the Pole won the opening set 6-1.
However, the American showed exactly that hitting ability that she possesses in the second set, when she was the best player on the tennis court. She completely flipped the script, mirroring what Swiatek did in the first set.
Collins first broke her to lead 3-0, and then, she broke her opponent's serve one more time to win the second set 6-2 and force the decider. After losing the set, the Polish No. 1 left the court for eight minutes, trying to find her momentum again.
She did just that when she returned, repeating the script of the first two sets, but this time, in her favor like in the first set. However, after breaking for a 3-0 lead, Collins left the court as she needed to receive treatment.
When she returned, she tried continuing, but she wasn't able to, telling the umpire: "There’s no way I can play." After that, she approached her opponent, announcing the retirement, as Swiatek moved on into the semi-finals of the Olympic Games.
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