By Pritha Ghosh
Danielle Collins faced Iga Swiatek in the third round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, but things didn鈥檛 go her way as she ended up on the losing side. After the match, the Pole’s fans took to social media to mock the American for what they called a “fake” smile during their pre-match photo at the net.Collins began her Wimbledon campaign with a confident win over Camila Osorio, followed by a routine victory against Veronika Erjavec. However, when she faced Swiatek in the third round on Saturday, July 5, she couldn鈥檛 find her rhythm and fell short, losing 2-6, 3-6.Swiatek fans couldn鈥檛 help but point out how overly cheerful Danielle Collins appeared during the pre-match photo at the net, especially considering her past tensions with the former World No. 1. One user on X (formerly Twitter) went as far as calling her smile “faker than Novak Djokovic鈥檚 injuries,” writing:鈥淐ollins’ smile here is faker than Novak’s injuries when losing.鈥濃淚 feel like Collins is the kind of person that will criticise someone without even disliking them that much, but Iga took the Olympics soo personal. Danielle has probably moved on and will find someone else to be firey too,鈥 another wrote.One account posted:鈥淒idn’t she say Iga was the one being fake? After being the one starting this one-sided 鈥榝eud鈥?鈥濃淭his is great picture, we can see everything here. One lady is doing fake smile and the other lady is truly honest person,鈥 one user wrote.鈥淐an鈥檛 stand Collins these days,鈥 another joined in.One account tweeted:鈥淔ake smile of Danielle.鈥滱 look into Danielle Collins and Iga Swiatek鈥檚 controversial historyIga Swiatek and Danielle Collins pictured at Wimbledon 2025 | Image Source: GettyDanielle Collins and Iga Swiatek are no strangers on the court, having faced each other 10 times on the WTA Tour, including their latest meeting at Wimbledon. Their rivalry grabbed headlines during the Paris Olympics last year for all the wrong reasons.The two shared an unusually long exchange at the net in Paris after Collins retired from their Olympic quarterfinal due to injury. She later revealed that she had called Swiatek 鈥渋nsincere鈥 during the handshake.鈥淚 told Iga she didn’t have to be insincere about my injury,” she told the press. “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. They can be the way that they are, I can accept that, and I don’t need the fakeness.”Swiatek later brushed off Collins’ claims, explaining that she was only trying to offer some comfort after the injury and take a moment to congratulate her on a great career since 2024 was expected to be the American’s final season on tour.”Well, I won’t argue about it, because I’ve never done anything nasty to her. I rather wanted to congratulate her on her successful career, because we all know that this is her last year on tour. Honestly, I don’t know what she meant, because we didn’t even have any interactions that could have caused her to say that to me,” the former World No. 1 told the media.Danielle Collins later told Canal+ that the whole incident was exaggerated and she was willing to move past it. However, things resurfaced at the 2025 United Cup when she noticeably avoided eye contact and rolled her eyes during the handshake with Swiatek, something she didn鈥檛 deny when questioned about it later by the media.