Defending champion Iga Swiatek was bundled from the Italian opening by American Daniel Collins, who defeated Poland’s 6-1, 7-5 in the 32nd round on Saturday.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek went down 5-0 in the opening set, allowing him to get on the board and avoid bagels.
Collins was lethal from baseline, mixed with the winner who returned forehand and backhand services, pulling Swiatek’s serve in the opening set, one-way traffic.
The first set was all one-way traffic, but the second was leveled 4-4 before Collins, the 2022 Australian Open runner-up Collins took away the victory in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
Sweet, who held a 7-1 head-to-head record against Collins heading into the contest, hasn’t won the tournament in nearly a year.
“I’ve played Iga many times, and the winning favor is her advantage,” Collins said. “When you play a lot of such close matches and play some of the best tennis, but you’re losing, you learn a lot. I feel like I applied it today.”
Collins fired 32 winners and converted six of eight breakpoints, but Swiatek, who won the tournament three times in the past four years, has committed 22 forced errors.
Swiatek lost as many matches this year as all of 2024, but she hasn’t reached the clay court final ahead of her bid to maintain the French open title later this month.
