PARIS — Iga Swiatek dropped to her knees and clutched at her midsection after getting hit by a ball in the Paris Olympics quarterfinals Wednesday, but it was her opponent, Danielle Collins, who stopped playing in the third set because of an injured stomach muscle she said was caused by cramping and dehydration from a lack of cold water available during a previous match.
When they spoke afterward, Collins gave Swiatek an earful, telling her “she didn’t have to be insincere about my injury,” according to Collins.
“There’s a lot that happens on camera. And there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma … (who) are one way on camera and another way in the locker room,” said Collins, a 30-year-old American who has announced she will retire after this season. “I don’t need the fakeness.”
Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion who is the top-seeded woman at the Summer Games, was leading 6-2, 1-6, 4-1 when Collins retired from the match after taking a medical timeout, then getting another visit from a trainer in the third set.
When a reporter wanted to know about their postmatch conversation, Swiatek replied: “I think it’s better to ask her.”
Collins, the runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open, said she went into convulsions after competing in heat that reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) on Tuesday. She blamed Olympic organizers for not having insulated water bottles, for the water not being cool enough and for not “prioritizing the health of the athletes.”
PHOTOS: Iga Swiatek gets hit by a ball at Olympic tennis and is called insincere by Danielle Collins
“Nearly collapsed when I came off court, and I was on a medical table for three hours” on Tuesday, Collins said. “It did a number on my body. When you have full body cramps from your toes to your neck, and when you’ve suffered heatstroke, it’s very, very difficult to come out here.”
In the opening game of the final set, with Collins serving at deuce, she directed a backhand down the middle of the court. Swiatek was up at the net and was unable to get out of the way of the shot.
Swiatek looked stunned as she let go of her white racket and dropped down on the red clay at Court Suzanne Lenglen. Collins - who asked, “Iga, are you OK?” - walked around the net to check on Swiatek, and chair umpire Damien Dumusois climbed out of his perch to see how the world’s No. 1 player was, too.
“I could not breathe for a moment. It hurt for a bit,” Swiatek said. “But with the adrenaline that you have on court, you don’t feel as much as you should.”
Swiatek eventually rose and nodded to indicate she could continue.
She is seeking her first Olympic medal at a place she knows so well. The 23-year-old from Poland has won four of the past five championships at the French Open, the Grand Slam tournament held each year at Roland Garros, the same site being used for tennis at these Games.
In the semifinals Thursday, Swiatek will face sixth-seeded Zheng Qinwen of China. Zheng, who reached the final at the Australian Open in January, eliminated Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (6) on Wednesday.
Kerber is a three-time major champion and former No. 1-ranked player who has said she will retire after these Olympics.
The other women’s singles semifinal will be Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia against Donna Vekic of Croatia, who beat Coco Gauff in the third round. Vekic, a semifinalist at Wimbledon less than three weeks ago, erased a match point and required five of her own to eventually get past Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8), finishing after midnight.
When Vekic, who got broken serving for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the third set, then had to overcome a 4-0 hole in the concluding tiebreaker, finally ended things after nearly three hours with an ace, she knelt in the clay, her chest heaving.
Gauff is out of the Olympics now after losses Wednesday in women’s doubles with Jessica Pegula and in mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz.
Schmiedlova defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2, following up a win against Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the third round.
Krejcikova was seeded ninth in Paris and has fared well on the clay courts at Roland Garros, winning the 2021 French Open singles and doubles trophies.
But with the heat at 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) and the air thick with humidity, Krejcikova looked listless down the stretch against Schmiedlova, a 29-year-old who is ranked 67th and has one fourth-round appearance at a Slam. That came last year at Roland Garros.
By the end, Krejcikova appeared spent and was barely moving. She slapped a forehand into the net to finish the match, and Schmiedlova raised both arms overhead.
In men’s action, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic defeated Dominik Koepfer of Germany 7-5, 6-3 to get to the Olympics quarterfinals for the fourth time. Djokovic won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games but never has won a gold.
Djokovic now meets Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in a rematch of the 2021 French Open final. Tsitsipas took the first two sets that day before Djokovic came back to win in five.
Olympic tennis uses a best-of-three-set format for all matches.
In other men’s results, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain got past Roman Safiullin of Russia 6-4, 6-2 before going out and losing in the doubles quarterfinals with Rafael Nadal, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev beat Alexei Popyrin 7-5, 6-3, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada beat Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-3, 7-6 (5), Tommy Paul of the U.S. was a 7-6 (6), 6-3 winner against Corentin Moutet of France - the last tennis player from the host country in any Olympic event - and Taylor Fritz of the U.S. got knocked out of singles by Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-4, 7-5.
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