Danielle Collins played her first match of the 2025 season at the Adelaide International, but was already causing headlines in the United Cup as part of the USA bench.
Collins was set to retire at the end of the 2024 season, but made a U-turn on that decision after revealing that ‘things had not gone as planned’ in her fertility journey and would take longer than expected.
The Miami Open champion began her year as the second ranked WTA player on the USA team at the United Cup, but did not play a single match on the winning team.
Despite her lack of on-court activity at the United Cup, Collins did cause controversy due to her handshake with Iga Swiatek, after the American appeared to roll her eyes during the altercation.
This caused so much of a reaction that Collins even used the handshake as her new Instagram profile picture.
However, Collins had previously spoken about wanting to put any issues with Swiatek behind her.
Collins and Swiatek first came to blows at the Paris Olympics during their quarter-final match on the clay of Roland Garros.
When trailing Swiatek in the deciding set, Collins retired from the match due to an abdominal injury that resulted in an awkward interaction with her opponent.
After the match, Collins clarified what she had told Swiatek when speaking to press in the French capital, “I told Iga she didn’t have to be insincere about, you know, my injury. There’s a lot that happens on camera, and there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma and come out and are one way on camera and another way in the locker room.
“And I just haven’t had the best experience, and I don’t really feel like anybody needs to be insincere. They can be the way that they are. I can accept that, and I don’t need that fakeness.”
Three months on from the incident, Collins was asked about how she felt about the incident when speaking to Polish outlet Canal+ Sport and clarified that she wanted to move on from it.
“Look these things happen sometimes on court. And I was obviously in a lot of physical pain during that match and felt uncomfortable in that interaction,” explained Collins. “Of course, we all would do things differently, but hopefully we can just move on from it, be good competitors and try to be the best people.
“Certainly I am trying to be the best person that I can be and I fall short of that sometimes you know, people make mistakes. Yeh, so hopefully we can focus on playing some good tennis and try to move past it.”
Swiatek has also commented on the situation, revealing that she did not understand where Collins’ comments came from and chose to move on from the incident.
While fans are now invested in this potential rivalry between Collins and Swiatek, the head-to-head is very one-sided in the latters favor.
Although, Collins arguably has the biggest victory in their previous meetings having beaten Swiatek to reach her only major final to date at the 2022 Australian Open.
Year | Tournament | Winner | Score |
2021 | Adelaide International QF | Iga Swiatek | 6-2 3-0 (retired) |
2022 | Australian Open SF | Danielle Collins | 6-4 6-1 |
2023 | Qatar Open R16 | Iga Swiatek | 6-0 6-1 |
2023 | Canada Open QF | Iga Swiatek | 6-3 4-6 6-2 |
2023 | Cincinnati Open R32 | Iga Swiatek | 6-1 6-0 |
2024 | Australian Open QF | Iga Swiatek | 6-4 3-6 6-4 |
2024 | Indian Wells R64 | Iga Swiatek | 6-3 6-0 |
2024 | Paris Olympics QF | Iga Swiatek | 6-1 2-6 6-4 (retired) |
The next time that the pair can face off is at the upcoming Australian Open, with the draw taking place on Thursday January 9.
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