Rafael Nadal’s return to competitive action ensured the gaze of the tennis world was directed at Washington this week. Turns out they had the wrong DC. Then again, Danielle Collins has a talent for going under the radar. The American won the first WTA Tour title of her career a fortnight ago in Palermo, just as the Olympics were getting underway, and she has been at it again this week in California, where she won her second successive tournament with a 6-3, 6-7 (10-12), 6-1 victory over Daria Kasatkina in the final of the Silicon Valley Classic.
It was a performance of power and determination from Collins, whose ferocious ball-striking and unflinching intensity reduced Kasatkina to the role of bewildered bystander for most of the first two sets before a combination of nerves, frustration and some clutch play from the Russian world No 31 forced the contest into a decider.
“It was one of my goals to win a tournament this year, and to now win two, it’s just been incredible,” said Collins, whose 10th successive victory propels her to 28th in the rankings, only five spots off the career high she achieved after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals two years ago. “It’s still kind of hard to comprehend that I’ve won two back-to-back.”
The expectation had been that Kasatkina would use her superior variety and finesse to disrupt Collins, denying her the pace and rhythm on which she thrives. The Russian instead spent much of the afternoon watching thunderbolts fly past as Collins, high on confidence after her win in Palermo, rifled her groundstrokes with breath-taking venom and precision and struck a dozen aces, amassing 54 winners in all. Worse still for Kasatkina, it was all too often Collins who showed the greater diversity of shot, the Floridian leavening the mix with moonballs and the occasional drop shot.
At a set and 5-3 up, Collins looked on course for a resounding victory. But two match points quickly came and went, and in the next game she was broken for the first time in the match. Now Kasatkina, who had hitherto cut a largely passive figure, showed her resolve. As Collins grew increasingly irritated with the home crowd, whose vocal absorption in the contest was partly down to her own repeated exhortations for support, Kasatkina edged a dramatic 22-point tiebreak, staving off a further three championship points before finally levelling the match on her fourth set point.
Many players might have folded in the face of such a setback, but Collins has recovered from worse. In April, she underwent surgery for endometriosis, a condition that had previously made playing through pain a way of life, frequently leaving her uncertain that she would even be able to complete matches. Now confident that she can stay the course, Collins refused to relinquish her grip on the match, seeing out the final set in emphatic fashion to claim the biggest title of her career.
“It’s tough when you go out against an opponent who runs down so many balls, anticipates so well, because a lot of times you’re having to win the point six, seven, eight times,” said Collins, who had lost both her previous meetings with Kasatkina.
“Where certain shots would be winners against other players, they’re not going to be against Dasha because of how great of a mover and anticipator she is. Towards the end of the second set, I became too much of my own critic as well, and I was really hard on myself. So I really had to have a reality check after losing that tiebreak and say, ‘Let’s just try to keep the positive energy going here, let’s not let this get me down.’
“I just had to really kind of lock into that mentality of being really patient with myself, and putting myself in an aggressive position consistently, but also accepting the fact that there were going to be some errors and mistakes along the way.”
Back in DC, Italy’s Jannik Sinner worked his way past a similar challenge, prevailing 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 against Mckenzie McDonald in the final of the Citi Open to become the youngest winner of an ATP 500 event. Sinner, 19, needed 11 set points to claim the opening set and was denied two match points at 5-2 in the decider, but held firm to see out the victory. The other DC will have known how he felt.