“I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is not going to be a good day,’” recalled Collins, whose fear of heights extends to balconies and tall buildings, let alone the 200ft suspension bridge that she and her fellow American would cross before scaling a precipitous mountain face. 

“I was terrified, it was one of the most scary experiences for me relying on equipment, the what ifs,” said Collins. “Halfway through it I realised every time I step out on the court, it’s not life or death. For people in rock climbing, it can be. That was a really big realisation for me, and something I think helped me grow to kind of step out of my comfort zone.”

Two years on Collins, who is through to her second Australian Open semi-final, may have to get used to the high life. Set to break the top 20 for the first time after an assured 7-5, 6-1 victory over Alizé Cornet of France, the 28-year-old has made the most of a quarter blown wide open by upsets, defeating the Danish teenager Clara Tauson, conqueror of sixth seed Anett Kontaveit, before edging a tight three-setter against Elise Mertens, the 19th seed. Victory over Cornet, who saw off the third-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza in round two, continues a cycle of opportunism that may yet carry Collins to a first major final.

Yet there is a lot more to the American’s story than simply being in the right place at the right time. Last April, after suffering five years of debilitating pain that a succession of doctors were at a loss to account for, Collins underwent surgery for endometriosis, a debilitating condition that causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow elsewhere. Seven weeks after a cyst the size of a tennis ball was removed from her womb, she played at the French Open, where she tore her abdomen after returning too soon. 

Somehow she made it back in time for Wimbledon, where was demolished by Viktorija Golubic in round two. It was not until late summer, when she won the first titles of her career in Palermo and San Jose, that Collins began to feel more like her old self. Now she is becoming acquainted with her new self.

“So much of the advice I had gotten over the years was that painful periods are normal, taking anti-inflammatories on a regular basis is normal,” said Collins, the 27th seed. “It finally got to the point where I couldn’t deal with it any longer physically or mentally. Once I was able to get the proper diagnosis and the surgery, I feel like it’s helped me so much – not just from a physical standpoint but from a mental standpoint.

“I definitely feel more free. I feel like I have solutions to be able to manage it when there are things that come up.”

She certainly had all the solutions against Cornet. Obliged to fight back from a set down in the previous two rounds, Collins laid the foundations for a more straightforward victory this time around with a hard-earned break in the fourth game, battering an inside-out return into the corner before pounding a backhand drive volley into the open court. It had taken Cornet 16 years and 60 grands slams to reach the first major quarter-final of her career, and while the 32-year-old had high hopes of going further, neither her ailing body nor her opponent’s weight of shot would permit it.

“She’s very powerful, even more than I expected,” said Cornet, who has suggested that this may be her final year on tour. “Her ball goes really fast in the air and she takes the ball super early. All the time you feel really oppressed. I felt out of breath all the time. I couldn’t, like, place my game. She just never let me do it, never gave me the time to do it. 

“She’s impressive. But today she was pretty quiet. She didn’t scream that much. When I see her playing on TV, sometimes she’s yelling, ‘C’mon!’ She looks like a lion. Today I don’t think I gave her enough battle so she could express herself.”

Emotionally and physically spent following her marathon victory over Simona Halep in the previous round, the unseeded Frenchwoman gave all she had to claw her way back to parity from 5-2 down in the first set. Having done so, however, she could win only one more game. Collins will now face former French Open champion Iga Swiatek, the seventh seed, who reached the second major semi-final of her career with a 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 victory over the unseeded Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi.

“I have played with some heavy hitters in this tournament already, so I feel like I’m feeling their game on my racquet pretty well,” said Swiatek, who was also forced to recover from a set down against Sorana Cirstea in the previous round. “Those two matches showed me that even in tough moments I can, come back, and I have skills to win matches even when they are really hard. 

“For sure it’s going to be hard, and she’s in great shape, you can see that, and really confident. But I also feel that way.”

It promises to be quite a contest.

The post Collins scales the heights to make second Australian Open semi-final appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Mundanity is anathema at the best of times to Cornet, an ebullient, emotionally complex character who, by her own admission, has spent much of her career chasing the rainbow of perfection. And against Garbiñe Muguruza at the Australian Open, the Frenchwoman did indeed make life interesting, sealing a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the third seed just minutes after the Danish teenager Clara Tauson had bundled out Anett Kontaveit, the high-flying Estonian who Muguruza vanquished to win the WTA Finals barely two months ago.

Plus ça change, as they say in Cornet’s homeland. The women’s game remains as thrillingly unpredictable as ever.

Few players embody that sense of uncertainty quite like Cornet, a player who has struggled to realise the spectacular potential she showed as a teenager, but whose ability and staying power remain undeniable.

Now into her 17th and perhaps final year as a professional, the 31-year-old has appeared in 60 consecutive grand slam tournaments – more than any other active female player, and just two short of the women’s record held by Ai Sugiyama. On the game’s biggest stages, however, consistency of appearance has not always been matched by consistency of performance. For all the mercurial talent that propelled Cornet to the junior French Open title as a 17-year-old, and lifted her to a career-high ranking of 11th in the world two years later, it is a curious footnote to her career that she has never progressed beyond the fourth round of a major. It is a modest return for a player who is, as Muguruza will not need reminding after suffering a second successive defeat at her hands, capable of troubling anyone in the world on her day.

“It’s been a while [that] I haven’t beaten a top-five player in a slam, so it’s a really good feeling,” said Cornet, who memorably shocked top seed Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon in 2014. “I really enjoyed it today, which doesn’t mean I will enjoy it tomorrow! That’s why, when the fun is here, you have to take it.  

“There were definitely some tough times during my career, but I think it’s the same for everybody. Like everybody, I wanted to quit tennis many times, because sometimes it’s just too painful to work and not to be rewarded for your work, to have tough losses. Sometimes you lose, for example, with match point. You go back to your hotel room and you go, ‘What’s the point of doing all that?’ 

“This is not an easy job. You’re on the road basically 10 months out of 12, so you never see your family, it’s really hard to have a love life. I mean, all these things around tennis make it complicated. But the love of the game has always been stronger. 

“I think today the key was that, you know, I’m telling myself that I’m playing probably my last year. I’m not sure yet. When I stepped on the court, I was like, ‘You know what, just enjoy the moment, because you don’t know if you’re going to come back.’ I think that’s what made the difference.”

Cornet’s freedom of spirit was apparent from the outset as she adopted a position high on the baseline, taking the ball early and going toe-to-toe with the Spaniard. Muguruza cut a contrastingly anxious figure, her plight epitomised by a woeful start to her opening service game, in which she twice landed groundstrokes halfway up the net and sent a regulation forehand sailing beyond the baseline. Had Cornet converted more than one of the 10 break points she held in the opener, a one-break advantage might quickly have become a rout. As it was, Muguruza fought gallantly but in vain to make up ground, retaining scoreline respectability without ever suggesting she had enough on the day to avert the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Cornet will face Tamara Zidansek, the 29th seed, in the third round.

“It’s a tough day,” said Muguruza, whose preparations for the tournament were thrown into disarray after her team contracted Covid. “I didn’t feel my game at all. My serve wasn’t there. I think my shots weren’t there also. Tactically, I wasn’t making the right decisions. 

“On top of that, she played very well, [a] very solid game. I think she plays better when she’s playing against top players. I’m a little bit surprised about my level – a little disappointed, too.”

Kontaveit, who unexpectedly emerged as a beacon of stability in the women’s game towards the end of last season after claiming titles in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca to break the top 10 and qualify for the WTA Finals, will know how the Spaniard feels. For all her recent exploits, a quarter-final at Melbourne Park three years ago remains the Estonian’s best showing at a major, and her hopes of improving on that record were in the balance from the moment Tauson drilled a sweetly-struck backhand winner to break in the opening game. It was the opening salvo in a barrage that would leave Kontaveit stunned.

“My weapons were obviously working very well,” said the 39th-ranked Tauson, who smoked 20 winners to Kontaveit’s 15 and made 14 fewer unforced errors. 

“When you play really good, you don’t feel like you’re playing amazing, but everything is just going how you want it. In my mind, that’s just how I want to play every time. I think I played a really, really good match today. I didn’t miss a lot of shots, even though I was going for them on every single shot.”

It was, said the 19-year-old, a victory underpinned by belief, a quality she felt she lacked last year when facing Victoria Azarenka at the French Open and Ashleigh Barty at Flushing Meadows. Her coach, Olivier Jeunehomme, was determined it would not happen again.

“I had a little talk with my coach right before the match, where we talked about [how] I have to go in believing I could win,” said Tauson following the first top-10 win of her career. 

“Last year, I don’t think I really believed that I could beat those players. Now, right before the match, he told me: ‘You have to believe you can win. We’ll see what the result says, but you have to believe it.’ I really did. I think that really helped me a lot.”

Tauson, who won the junior title at Melbourne Park in 2019, will now face former semi-finalist Danielle Collins, who beat her at Roland Garros a couple of years ago. “She’s a good player,” she said of the American 27th seed. “She always goes far in the good tournaments. So we’ll see. I have to play good again, so I hope I can do that.”

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