Iga Sviatek fell to her knees and clutched her abdomen after being hit by a ball at one point in their singles quarterfinal match at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, but it was American Danielle Collins who stopped play late in the third set.
Swiatek led 6-2, 1-6, 4-1 when Collins took a medical timeout and left the match after a trainer’s return visit.
Collins, 30, who finished runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open, announced she would retire from elite tennis at the end of the season. She said Tuesday that she suffered an abdominal injury after suffering cramps and dehydration due to a lack of cold water while playing in temperatures that reached 32 degrees Celsius.
She accused Olympic organizers of failing to provide insulated water bottles, of not providing enough cold water and of “not prioritising the health of the athletes”.
“I’ve worked hard my whole life to get to the Olympics, and this is my first and last Olympics, and it’s really disappointing and sad that there’s not enough water on the court,” Collins said.
In the opening game of the final set, when Collins was serving at deuce, she hit a backhand into the middle of the court. Swiatek was at the net and couldn’t avoid the shot.
Swiatek looked dazed as she put down her white racket and came to rest on the red dirt of Court Suzanne Lenglen. Collins asked, “Iga, are you OK?” and circled the net to check on Swiatek, while umpire Damien Dumusois got up to see what the world’s No. 1 was up to.
“I couldn’t breathe for a second. It hurt for a second,” Swiatek said. “But because of the adrenaline you feel on the court, you don’t feel it as much as you should.”
Eventually, Sviatek stood up and nodded, indicating that he could continue.
Three points later, Collins pushed her forehand long and Swiatek broke. Soon after, she broke again to go up 3-0 in the set, and Collins left the court for a medical timeout, delaying the game by about five minutes.
When play resumed, the score quickly grew to 4-0 before Collins won a game, but then she dropped the game.
Collins reportedly told Swatek in a post-game interview that “you didn’t have to be insincere about my injury.”
“There’s a lot going on in front of the camera, and there are a lot of charismatic people… who are one way in front of the camera, and another way in the locker room,” Collins said. “You don’t have to fake it.”
When a reporter asked Sviatek what the post-match conversation was about, he replied, “I think it would be better to ask her directly.”
In the semifinals, Swiatek will face Zheng Qinwen, who ended Germany’s Angelique Kerber’s illustrious career in a tight match that ended 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (6).
While Kerber held on in the stifling heat, Jeong failed to earn a match point in three straight sets but eventually prevailed, crumpling to the red mud in disbelief as Kerber’s final shot hit the net.
Kerber, a three-time Grand Slam champion, announced last week that she would retire after the Olympics.
“I’ve achieved everything I’ve ever dreamed of,” Kerber said. “I was No. 1, I’ve won a Grand Slam, [silver] “After winning a medal in Rio, what more could you ask for?”
Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic was knocked out by Anna Karolina Shmiedlova 6-4, 6-2. Shmiedlova has now eliminated both women who reached the final at the All England Club two and a half weeks ago. She defeated Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the third round on Tuesday and is now the first Slovakian tennis semifinalist at a Summer Olympics since 1988.
Krejcikova was seeded ninth in Paris and has performed well on the clay courts at Roland Garros, which hosted the French Open and is used for tennis at this Olympics. Her first Grand Slam singles championship came at the 2021 French Open, and she has also won the doubles title.
But in 90-degree heat and high humidity, Krejcikova looked helpless until the end against the 29-year-old Schmidlova, who is ranked No. 67 and has only reached the fourth round at a Slam once, last year at Roland Garros.
At the end, Krejcikova looked exhausted and barely moved. She ended the match by hitting a forehand into the net, and Schmiedlova raised both arms.
The two players collected almost exactly the same number of winners, Krejcikova with 18 and Schmiedlova with 17. The biggest difference was in unforced errors, with Krejcikova more than twice as many as Schmiedlova with 32 to her 15.
That included five double faults for Krejčkova, who had to deal with 11 break points and lost five service games.
Schmiedlova’s next match is against Croatia’s Donna Vekic on Thursday. Vekic erased a match point and needed five more to eventually beat Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8) and the match ended just after midnight.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
