The nightmare continues for Iga Swiatek after another horrible defeat at this time her ranking is set to take a big hit.
As a four-time French Open champion, Swiatek has been the ‘Queen of Clay’ for the last half a decade, but her form is unravelling in alarming fashion ahead of her defence of the Roland Garros title later this month.
Swiatek won two games against Coco Gauff in a brutal semi-final defeat in the Madrid Open last week, but she started her Italian Open defence in encouraging fashion with a dominant win.
Yet her vulnerabilities were graphically exposed once again as America’s Collins clinched a 6-1, 7-5 victory that will have a big impact on Swiatek’s ranking.
“I played Iga so many times and the wins are in her favour,” said Collins. “When you play that many close matches and play some of your best tennis but lose, you learn a lot. I feel like I applied that today.
More Tennis News
Iga Swiatek’s latest comments confirm she is growing tired of the constant negativity coming her way
Iga Swiatek: Time to stop the hate flowing in the direction of a champion who deserves better
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli was courtside in her role with Sky Sports Tennis and she was stunned by what she witnessed.
“It’s a massive shock,” she said. “To see Iga Swiatek going out so early in a clay court tournament before a Grand Slam, which is Roland Garros, when she is defending champion, is the biggest shock
“She was struggling so much on the return of serve. On a few occasions in the second set, she could have broken and gotten herself back in 2-2, 15-15; she missed two routine returns of serve. The same in the back end of the set.
“She just couldn’t get that strike into the court. It was very uncharacteristic compared to when she is playing her best tennis.”
Swiatek was defending 1,000 points from her win in Rome last year and she will now lose 935 points, which will drop her down to No 4 in the current live rankings.
This is significant as it could mean she faces world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals at Roland Garros, yet the notion that the Polish star will make it through to that stage of the upcoming Grand Slam in Paris looks unlikely given her current form.
Swiatek’s form has collapsed in 2025 and the manner of defeats makes her constant setbacks even more shocking.
Her unforced error count rises the moment pressure is applied and opponents facing her on clay at Roland Garros will not be overwhelmed by the aura she used to bring onto the court.
Swiatek may not be asked once again about the impact of coach Wim Fissette, who does not appear to have had a positive impact on her game since joining ‘Team Iga’ at the start of 2025.
She was asked about Fissette by the media in Rome, she insisted her experienced coach was not the problem.
I feel like I worked on some technical stuff on my serve and my forehand,” said Swiatek.
“I know that I haven’t been always able to implement that on the match court, which is not perfect. This is tennis. I don’t have, like, three months to change some technical thing, then your body just remembers it. It would be much easier if we had a system like that.
“My pre-season was short. I’m kind of catching up in between tournaments to improve the technical things. Yeah, I feel like some things have been better because of Wim, like my serve.
“I feel like I wasn’t so good at implementing it all the time. Sometimes I changed the way I play in a way I shouldn’t have done, and it’s completely kind of on me.
“Sometimes I make little bit wrong decisions. I think it’s because of me wanting to, I don’t know, play faster or finish the rally faster instead of being solid and building it. That’s why I was talking at the beginning about the discipline.
Yeah, I think it’s all pretty connected. But I’m happy with the work I’m doing with Wim. So I’ll just continue. I’ll also try to be more, yeah, disciplined and make some nice better choices on court.”
Swiatek’s positive words for Fissette may not endure as the general pattern when a player of this stature enjoyed a slump in form of this nature is to point the finger of blame elsewhere.
Swiatek looks set to drop behind Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the WTA Rankings when they are next updated and her rankings slide could get even worse if the defending champion goes out early at Roland Garros.
READ NEXT: Iga Swiatek ‘irritated by headlines talking about falling apart or a mental crisis’
The post Iga Swiatek set for shocking rankings collapse after latest nightmare defeat appeared first on Tennis365.
Leave a Reply