'Played some of my best tennis but lost': Danielle Collins turns lessons into victory over Iga Swiatek

Danielle Collins celebrated a remarkable victory over Iga Swiatek in the third round of the Rome Open, winning 6-1, 7-5. The American world No. 35 claimed just her second career win over the Pole (now 2-7 H2H), deepening Swiatek’s ongoing struggles during the clay swing.

The 5-time Grand Slam champion arrived in Rome with the mission of defending her title, but she continues to lose ranking points week after week. The three-time Rome champion was a heavy favourite against Collins but was once again outplayed by her opponent.

The head-to-head had strongly favoured Swiatek, who had won seven of their eight previous encounters. Their only prior clay-court meeting also went Swiatek’s way – at the Paris 2024 Olympics – though Collins was forced to retire in a tight match (6-1, 2-6, 4-1, ret.), sending the Pole through to the semifinals.

After securing one her best victory of the years – at least in terms of ranking - Collins pointed to the lessons learned from past defeats as the key to her triumph. “I’ve played Iga so many times. The winning favour is in her favour. When you play that many close matches and get this close… and also play some of your best tennis but lose. I think that you learn a lot. I feel like I applied that today, to the match.”

It was only Collins’ third career win over a top-2 player, adding to previous victories over Angelique Kerber (Australian Open 2019, then No. 2) and Ashleigh Barty (Adelaide International 2021, then No. 1). It was also her 16th career top-10 win – and her first since Charleston 2024, roughly 13 months ago.

The former world No. 8 will now face either fellow American qualifier Hailey Baptiste or 2-time Rome champion Elina Svitolina (16th seed) in the next round.