Sabalenka, the most brutal ball-striker in the women’s game, briefly turned touch artist. Collins, who bows to no one in her mental and emotional intensity, was eerily becalmed. And as hopes of a gladiatorial contest gave way to a more prosaic reality, so the murmur of expectation that initially soundtracked the occasion slowly died, to be replaced by the odd ripple of polite applause. 

But if the sixth meeting between two of the fiercest competitors in the women’s game was a far cry from their blood-and-thunder collision last month in Madrid, the bottom line remained the same, Sabalenka prevailing 7-5, 6-2 to maintain her unbeaten record against the American and earn a place in the Italian Open final.

Awaiting the second-seeded Belarusian will be Iga Swiatek, whose 6-4, 6-3 win over Coco Gauff was more a case of business as usual. Through to her third final in four years in Rome, the Polish world No 1 has now won 10 of her 11 meetings with Gauff in straight sets. Swiatek is yet to drop a set over the fortnight, and is also riding an 11-match unbeaten streak that began with her title run at the Madrid Open, where she claimed an epic three-set victory over Sabalenka after saving three championship points.

While Swiatek has made serene progress, Sabalenka’s path to the second Saturday has been strewn with obstacles. Aside from the inevitable mental and emotional hangover that followed her defeat in the Spanish capital, the 26-year-old Belarusian arrived in Rome suffering from illness. She flirted with disaster in her opening match against Katie Volynets, an American qualifier ranked 109, and a couple of rounds later she suffered a back injury in an otherwise cathartic victory over Elina Svitolina in which she fended off three match points. 

“After Madrid, I didn’t feel great,” said Sabalenka, who was taken to a deciding set in all but one of her six matches at the event. “I had illness, then I got injured. I [was] kind of surprised that, even [with] so much stuff going on, I was able to make it to the [Rome] final. 

“At the same time, I knew that the level was there. If I start feeling better, I can go to the finals. So it’s like 50/50, you know? But that match [against Swiatek] definitely hurt me. It was a really tough loss, especially after having some match points, even though she played great tennis.

“Hopefully, here in Rome, I can get the win and get the title.”

If she continues to channel her inner Ons Jabeur as she did against Collins, Sabalenka will do her chances no harm. Under pressure on serve in the third game, she unexpectedly leavened the mix with a delicate, angled forehand drop shot that left Collins stranded behind the baseline. Another followed two games later, this time from the backhand. Vicious power remains the bedrock of her game, but such variety could offer a useful extra dimension against Swiatek, who was certainly driven to distraction by Yulia Putintseva’s drop shots in the third round. Just don’t expect her to opt for finesse if she gets a match point again.

“I’ll trust myself and go for shots instead of trying to keep in the point, just keep the ball back in,” said Sabalenka. “Instead of playing safe, I would just go for it.”

Swiatek, meanwhile, appears to have left Madrid with more than just the trophy. Only once previously had she contested a final-set tiebreak at tour level, and the one she played at the Caja Mágica was her first in a final. But having come through the experience, she has looked all the stronger for it. 

It is not unusual for Swiatek to advance to a final without dropping a set, even at this rarefied level, yet she has shown impressive resilience at the Foro Italico. After dropping the opening set, Putintseva was a point away from taking a 5-1 lead against her. Angelique Kerber led 2-0 in the second set after saving seven set points in the first. Gauff too started strongly, claiming an early break with a delicious topspin lob. But Swiatek rebounded on each occasion, playing with a calmness and self-belief that have not always been evident in moments of high stress.

“I think [the Madrid final] gave me confidence that I can win even though I’m not feeling the best way or I’m stressed at the beginning,” said Swiatek. “I can still get the score back.

“Maybe I’m less worried before matches because I know even if I’m going to be in trouble, I’ll be able to recover from it maybe if I’m going to work hard. This is the kind of feeling that I have.”

The benefits of that mindset were clear in the Pole’s outstanding quarter-final victory against Madison Keys, where she saved all 10 break points she faced. Yet, whatever her performance in Madrid may have given her, the 22-year-old is focused only on the here and now as she prepares to lock horns with Sabalenka again. 

“I don’t think it makes sense to think about these two matches as one continuing story, because [it’s a] totally different tournament,” said Swiatek. “Different week, as well. It’s not like it’s going to be the same. I’ll try to be in the present, not really think about Madrid.

“It’s a totally different story.”

A fortnight after one of the most dramatic and compelling finals in recent years, many will be hoping otherwise.

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Eight days after winning the Miami Open, the most significant tournament victory of her career, the 30-year-old American concluded a dominant week at the Charleston Open with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Daria Kasatkina to make it back-to-back titles.

It is the second event in a row at which Collins has dropped just one set – for Bernarda Pera last week, read defending champion Ons Jabeur this – and the second time in her career that she has won two events in succession, following her twin triumphs in Palermo and San Jose in the summer of 2021. When she’s hot, she’s hot. 

And for the past fortnight, Collins has been on fire. This was the Floridian’s 13th straight victory – the longest winning streak of a career that, she maintains, will end later this season – and with it she will rise to 15th in the world, just eight spots shy of the career-best ranking she achieved after reaching the Australian Open final two years ago. It has been a fairy tale run, and there may yet be more to come. With 22 wins, Collins not only stands alongside Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina as the season’s most consistently successful player, but is also up to fourth in the race to the WTA Finals, for which she has never previously qualified.

“What a whirlwind, to play the match the way that I did and go out and execute my game plan so seamlessly,” said Collins, who intends to retire at the end of the season to start a family. “What a way to win the tournament – and two back-to-back, so really excited about it.

“I’m so locked in and concentrated into what I’m doing right now, I think that’s been one of my biggest areas of improvement, and when I’m this concentrated it makes it tough for anyone.”

It certainly made it tough for Kasatkina. Her affinity with the tournament where she won the first title of her career in 2017 is deep-rooted, and her spirited efforts to keep Collins at bay, even as the American blasted 37 winners and eviscerated her second serve, made plain how much she craved a second success. 

By the latter stages of the second set, however, Kasatkina looked utterly bewildered, just as so many of Collins’s opponents have over this golden period of her career. As she addressed the crowd afterwards, the Russian spoke emotionally of how much the event means to her – “Charleston is maybe the only place where I feel like home, being far from home,” she said, her voice faltering – but her desire was no match for Collins’s quality and aggression.

“Danielle is now playing on the highest level,” said Kasatkina. “It’s not just me, there’s 12 players before who couldn’t beat her.

“She was a hurricane on the court today. I tried everything I could, but today unfortunately it wasn’t enough. This happens. She’s playing with wings, let’s say – she’s fearless and doing her stuff.”

The battle lines were drawn as early as the second game, a miniature epic spanning 12 minutes and eight deuces in which Collins pounded the ball relentlessly while Kasatkina scrambled, retrieved and did her best to counterpunch. The obvious question was whether the 26-year-old, taken the distance in three of her four previous matches, would have the physical, mental and emotional reserves to cope with the power and intensity coming her way. The blazing backhand return with which Collins converted her fourth break point suggested it would be a tough afternoon for Kasatkina, and so it proved. 

That early break set the tone for all that followed. Despite struggling to make her first delivery, Collins was near-perfect when she did so, dominating her own service games while making constant inroads into Kasatkina’s. She saved the only two break points she faced, while her pedal-to-the-metal aggression on the return limited Kasatkina to a success rate of just 28% behind her second serve. When Collins drilled a pair of untouchable backhands to break early in the second set, there would be no way back for the beleaguered fourth seed.

For Collins, who has been beset by so many injuries and physical challenges over her eight years as a professional, this remarkable two-week run has offered a glimpse of what she can achieve with a clean bill of health. Now she will hope to carry her momentum into the European clay-court swing.

“I had a lot of matches in Miami, and I had a lot of matches here,” said Collins. “To be able to physically battle and push myself to a new limit gives me a lot of confidence. I’ve been so happy to be, obviously, playing at the level that I’ve been playing, but to be able to back it up two weeks in a row has just been fantastic.”

The post Collins storms past Kasatkina to win Charleston Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Instead, as a final searing backhand winner whistled beyond the reach of Elena Rybakina, confirming Collins as the new Miami Open champion, she bent forward, head in hands, and sobbed tears of joy.

“It was for hard for me to hide the emotion,” the 30-year-old American said after her 7-5, 6-3 win. “I think these are the moments that we live for, and we don’t always get to have them.”

That was something of an understatement, for this was an afternoon when talent, an unstinting work ethic, and the ability to overcome hurdles that would have broken a lesser athlete coalesced to deliver a fairy-tale moment. Playing for the first WTA 1000 title of her career in her home state of Florida, in what she insists will be her final season on tour, Collins rose to the occasion magnificently, delivering a performance full of verve, intensity and dogged determination. 

“What a dream come true to have played at the level that I have played consistently over the last two weeks,” said Collins. “This has been such a journey for me. Thirty years old, you know, this was the finals of my first 1000, and it’s been a different journey than I think a lot of the stories that we’re familiar with.  

“It’s just been amazing to go out today and to have felt the energy that I felt from the fans and literally feel like I’m playing in front of thousands of my best friends. That was just surreal. I will never forget this day because of that.”

A former Australian Open finalist who reached a career-high ranking of seventh less than two years ago, Collins is no stranger to success. Yet her most significant title before this one came at a WTA 500 event in San Jose in 2021 – a fine achievement, no doubt, but hardly one commensurate with the ability of a player who, at her best, has the power and mentality to trouble any woman in the sport. 

Now she has her own little slice of history. Currently the world No 53, Collins is the lowest-ranked woman to win the Miami Open since its inception in 1985. She will rise to 22nd on Monday and, with barely any points to defend until August, has plenty of scope to climb higher in the months ahead.

If she can replicate the form she produced in Miami, who knows what Collins might go on to achieve in the time she has left? She would not be drawn on when and where she will bid farewell – “We’ll get to that later,” she said – but if she gets on a roll at the US Open, no one should rule out the possibility of a yet more magical ending. We saw last September what can happen when an American woman, willed on by a feverish crowd in the world’s largest tennis stadium, finds inspiration in New York. 

There is a lot of tennis to be played between now and then, of course, and numerous variables that would need to converge. Good health is never a given for a woman who suffers from endometriosis and rheumatoid arthritis, conditions that have made large chunks of her professional career an extended exercise in pain management. Only last month, she was hit by a debilitating back injury that forced her to withdraw from her quarter-final match in Austin, Texas, briefly threatening her participation in the sunshine swing. 

Still, if this is as good as it gets for Collins, what a ride it has been. Having recovered from a set down against Bernarda Pera in her opening match, she grew in stature with each passing round in Miami, felling high-class opponents like skittles. Elina Avanesyan, Anastasia Potapova, Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Garcia and Ekaterina Alexandrova were all brushed aside, with none of those players able to win more than three games in a set. 

Against Rybakina, whose path to the final was contrastingly fraught, Collins simply refused to buckle, saving all but one of the 11 break points she faced and elevating her game at each key juncture. It was less a victory than an act of sheer will, the performance of a player determined not to leave anything on the table as she pursued a potentially career-defining victory. 

With Collins drilling her groundstrokes and taking on her returns, the onus was on Rybakina to pick up from where she left off against Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals, when a flawless serving display pulled her through a final-set tiebreak. But In a nip-and-tuck opening set, Collins fended off four break points in the seventh game, then capitalised on an error-strewn service game from Rybakina at 5-6 to seize the initiative.

Stricken by a gastrointestinal illness in Indian Wells, where she was forced to abandon her title defence without striking a ball, Rybakina arrived in Miami short of match fitness. She found her best tennis elusive, four of her five matches en route to the final going the distance, but the former Wimbledon champion demonstrated her resilience and tenacity throughout the tournament, and did so again after falling a break behind at the start of the second set. 

The 24-year-old was helped on her way by a first hint of anxiety from Collins. Serving to consolidate her lead, the American attempted an ill-advised drop shot on game point and paid a heavy price, Rybakina rifling a pair of rapid-fire winners to break back. It took all Collins’s toughness and tenacity to navigate the seventh game, where Rybakina cast a prolonged look of dismay towards her box as she squandered a trio of chances to re-establish her advantage. Having survived, however, she produced a magical topspin lob to create the platform for another break, and from there she showed incredible heart to stave off a final defiant push from Rybakina and seal the biggest win of her life.

Accompanied by her beloved dog Quincy, surrounded by friends and family, and making time to relax on the golf course, Collins found plenty to nourish her soul in Miami. That serenity propelled her to a triumph for which she has yearned.

“I have always wanted to win every tournament that I have signed up for, but I do think that because it is my last year, I’m like, you know, I really want to try to win a Masters 1000 this year. That’s really important to me. That’s something that I talked a lot about with everybody close to me.  

“I really wanted to make a push to be able to, like, bring out my best tennis. I’m so glad that I have been able to figure out some of the physical things I have needed to do to kind of peak at the right time and to feel like I’m ready to go. I certainly did that this tournament, but it has been a goal. So I got to tick it off the list.”

When she was a child, Collins pleaded with her father for the chance to attend the Miami Open. He replied that she could only go if she was competing in it. Well, now she has won it. Wherever life takes her from here, no one can take that away from her.

The post Collins beats Rybakina to win Miami Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Ten weeks ago at the Australian Open, Rybakina came out on the wrong side of the longest tiebreak in grand slam singles history, losing a 42-point shootout to Anna Blinkova. Pushed to a final-set shootout for the first time since, it would have been natural for her mind to drift back to that gut-wrenching defeat. 

But as the 24-year-old vied with Victoria Azarenka for a place in the Miami Open final, nothing could have been further from her mind. She was not thinking of Australia, or Blinkova, or the six match points she missed on that January night in Melbourne. She was not dwelling on a remarkably one-sided second set in which Azarenka turned a match she had been controlling on its head with a run of 16 straight points. Nor was she preoccupied by the thought that, less than 10 minutes earlier, she had stood just two points from victory as she served for the match at 5-4. All that mattered now was a clear mind.

“I knew that in the tiebreak the only chance for me to win was just to switch off my mind and just try to go for it,” said Rybakina following her dramatic 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory. 

“I didn’t even remember that last time I played in Australia, the tiebreak. But definitely, all the matches I played here, it was a battle for every point with all the opponents. 

“I was not really thinking much. I knew it’s a tiebreak, it’s a kind of roulette, it might not go your way, especially from the beginning – and it went my way.”

Through to the final for a second straight year, Rybakina will face a player cast in the same powerful mould in Danielle Collins, who maintained her dominant form at the tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 14th seed. 

“I’m looking forward to playing Elena,” said Collins after reaching the first WTA 1000 final of her career in her last season as a professional. “We have had a lot of great matches previously, some battles. That’s what we play for as professional athletes, these close ones. 

“Every time I have played her, it’s neck and neck. These games are close, the points are close, they are long, challenging points. Big serves from both of us. Big returns, big groundstrokes. I think we will go out there and put on a great show and it will be a fun match.”

Rybakina could be forgiven for hoping that their latest meeting bucks that trend. The Kazakhstani has won her past three matches against the unseeded American – her sole defeat came during Collins’s title run in San Jose in 2021 – but all have gone the distance. After being pushed to a decider in four of her five matches in Miami, another three-setter is the last thing the world No 4 needs.

“It was really difficult from the beginning,” said Rybakina, who arrived in Florida short of match practice after a gastrointestinal illness forced her to abandon her defence of the Indian Wells title. “For sure I can take a lot from this tournament, a lot of positives. And also, in the beginning, these long matches were helping me to get back in shape. 

“Now I’m not in shape, just because I’m tired of all these long matches. But overall, it was a really successful tournament no matter how I do in the final.”

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Not in the sense of being timid or withdrawn, you understand; far from it, on the tennis court at least. There is a reason the 30-year-old Floridian has nicknames ranging from Danimal and Tenacious D to the Queen of the Come On, as she was christened earlier this week at the Miami Open, and you need only Google the phrase “Danielle Collins scream” for that reason to become apparent.

To be clear, Collins is actually retiring – as in, hanging up her racket, finishing her career, giving up the day job. This is not news. Collins announced her plans, in terms that were both clear and succinct, following a desperately close three-set loss to Iga Swiatek at this year’s Australian Open.

“This is going to be my last season,” said Collins. “I have other things that I’d like to accomplish in my life outside of tennis, and would like to be able to have the time to be able to do that. Obviously, having kids is a big priority for me.”

Anyone familiar with her medical history would understand why Collins is eager to start a family. Three years ago, she had a large cyst removed from her ovary following a diagnosis of endometriosis that, thanks to medical experts who failed to fully investigate her complaints of agonising periods and debilitating back pain, had been five years in the making. Endometriosis causes tissue lining the womb to grow outside of it; in Collins’s case, that tissue had displaced her uterus, causing it to press against a spinal nerve. 

Surgery brought relief, and nine months later the American achieved the finest result of her career, blasting her way past Swiatek to reach the Australian Open final, where she was beaten by Ashleigh Barty. That run propelled Collins into the world’s top 10 for the first time, and if anyone needed a reminder that she remains eminently capable of such tennis, the evidence has been plentiful in Miami. Mining a rich seam of form, Collins has powered her way past a trio of seeds in Anastasia Potapova, Sorana Cirstea and Caroline Garcia to reach the second WTA 1000 semi-final of her career, six years after her first – also in Miami. 

But tennis isn’t everything, not to Collins, and she is acutely aware that the chronic inflammatory condition with which she is dealing – she was also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019 – can make it harder to get pregnant. So when she says she is retiring, it’s a safe bet she’s not kidding. 

However, not everyone is convinced. The quality of her performances has done nothing to allay the scepticism of those who find it unfathomable that a player who led Swiatek by a double break in the final set at Melbourne Park, reached the quarter-finals in Doha as a qualifier, and is now a win away from reaching the second biggest final of her career, should want to call it quits. 

Evidently weary of being pressed on the subject, Collins pushed back when asked if results like those she has achieved this week might encourage her to reconsider her future, wondering out loud whether a male player would continue to face such questions.

“I feel like I have had to justify my decision a lot,” said Collins. “I feel like if I was a guy, I probably wouldn’t have to justify it that much.”

Andy Murray, who has found himself in the same boat despite clearly laying out his retirement plans, could probably set Collins straight on that one. More germane is the fact that Collins’s pursuit of personal happiness is being seen through the lens of her status as a public figure; while she has made a decision based on what is best for her as an individual, others see only Danielle Collins the tennis player. She is alive to the gulf in perception, but she remains perplexed by it.  

“I think it’s really interesting how, in a lot of different situations, I have had to kind of justify the reasons behind retirement,” said Collins following her 6-3, 6-2 quarter-final win over Garcia. 

“I’m living with a chronic inflammatory disease that affects your ability to get pregnant, and so that’s a deeply personal situation. I’ve explained that from time to time.  

“At the end of the day, this is my personal choice. This is just so much more to do [with] than just tennis and my career. I’m enjoying my career. I’m having a lot of fun. I love coming out here and competing. But at the end of the day, this is a really big life decision, and I think that that should be pretty understandable.”

So it should, but in the meantime there is a title to be fought for. On Thursday, Collins will face Ekaterina Alexandrova, a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Jessica Pegula, for a place in the final. 

“She has had an incredible run and incredible couple of months,” said Collins of the Russian 14th seed, who claimed the biggest win of her career against Swiatek on Tuesday. 

“It’s been great to see how her game has evolved over the years, and the way that she’s been playing has been really exciting.”

The same could be said for Collins, who has never faced Alexandrova before but will not be intimidated by a player cast in her own powerful mould. Currently ranked 53 in the world, she will go in as a notional underdog. Those who have witnessed her fearsome ball-striking over the past eight days may struggle to see it that way; those who have not should catch her while they still can. 

The post Danielle Collins: not shy, but most definitely retiring appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The Polish world No 1’s draw, a near replica of the one she was dealt at the Australian Open, was an obvious early talking point at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, with Linda Noskova, Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina all potentially blocking her path to a projected final against Aryna Sabalenka. Typically, though, Swiatek steadfastly refused to look beyond her opener against Danielle Collins – and no wonder, given how close the combative American came to defeating her in the second round at Melbourne Park. 

It is no secret that Swiatek can be vulnerable to a big shot-maker capable of attacking her second serve and rushing her off the ground, and that is most certainly a category into which Collins falls, as she demonstrated over the course of a highly competitive opening seven games. But neither is it news that, having established a lead, Swiatek rarely relinquishes it: unbeaten on the 65 previous occasions she had won the opening set at this level, the 22-year-old broke for the first time in the eighth game and never looked back, rattling off nine straight games to seal a 6-3, 6-0 victory. 

“For sure I’m happy that I started this tournament well, because first rounds aren’t easy and especially against Danielle, she’s really hitting the ball hard and pretty unpredictable,” said Swiatek. “I’m happy that I kept my focus and stuck with my game, no matter what Danielle was doing on the other side of the net.”

Call it another triumph of process over prognostication, a victory for staying in the moment rather than worrying about what lies ahead. Swiatek would not have it any other way. This was her 27th win in 29 matches dating back to last October, but she will not be counting. The focus now switches to Noskova, the 29th-ranked Czech who handed her a shock defeat at the Australian Open. Thoughts of revenge over the 19-year-old, who saw off Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-3, 7-5, will be as far from her mind as dreams of another title in the California desert, to go with the one she won two years ago.

“I’m trying to set my goals for more technical stuff, like working on my serve and actually being more comfortable at the net,” said Swiatek, who won 71% of her first serve points against Collins. 

“It’s not tournament-related, it’s more process-related. That’s also kind of how Daria [Abramowicz, her sports psychologist] pushed me in that direction, so I think these goals are healthier.”

Results elsewhere offered further evidence of the merits of that measured approach. Overnight, the complexion of Swiatek’s tournament was transformed. Ostapenko, who has won all four of her previous meetings with the Pole, was stopped in her tracks by Angelique Kerber, who claimed her most notable result since returning from an 18-month maternity absence with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Latvian 10th seed. Rybakina, meanwhile, was forced to abandon her title defence without striking a ball after once again falling victim to gastrointestinal problems. If Swiatek makes it through the next round, nobody will be making comparisons with the Australian Open.

The turning point against Collins came in the seventh game, where the 56th-ranked American laid the foundations for two break points with a thumping drive volley and a crisp forehand pass. Perhaps conscious that she might be playing her final match in the Coachella Valley after announcing that she will retire at the end of this season, the 30-year-old had been battering her returns and compensating for her inability to land a first serve by maintaining immaculate depth and pace in the baseline exchanges. 

A break at that stage could have made life complicated for Swiatek, but she staved off the danger and went on to hold with an ace. She would not lose another game, Collins’s errors mounting rapidly as she struggled to match aggression with consistency, hitting seven double faults and winning just half of her first serve points. An initially uncomfortable contest for Swiatek ended in a procession.

“I think most of the players would tell you that they don’t feel comfortable most of the time,” said Swiatek, who was forced to recover from 4-1 down in the deciding set when she met Collins at Melbourne Park two months ago. “If they have five tournaments during the year where they feel great, that’s a lot. So you just have to kind of don’t panic and take it step by step, because I already had plenty of tournaments where I didn’t play well during first matches, and then I was able to change my game and adjust a little bit more so I could win titles.  

“This gave me a little bit more perspective and it showed me that I shouldn’t judge too early my game, even though I may not play so well or feel comfortable. And for sure this kind of approach helps to find these solutions.”

Now recovered from last month’s demanding Middle East swing, where she won a third straight title in Doha before running out of steam against Anna Kalinskaya in the Dubai semi-finals, Swiatek will seek more solutions against Noskova on Sunday.

The post Swiatek survives early test to beat Collins in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

On a day at Melbourne Park that felt like it might never be over, those words were to acquire greater resonance than the Polish world No 1 could possibly have imagined.

When Swiatek fought back from the brink of defeat in the opening match in Rod Laver Arena, it seemed the day’s big story had arrived early. It has been three and a half months since the 22-year-old was last beaten and, although a tricky draw meant that run was always bound to come under threat at Melbourne Park, a second-round defeat would still have felt seismic. With two hours and 48 minutes gone, however, it seemed inevitable.

Having recovered from a set and a break down, Collins was 4-1 up in the decider and at her big-hitting best, her ferocious competitive instincts in overdrive as she nailed returns and crushed groundstrokes with the same force and fearlessness that overwhelmed Swiatek in the semi-finals two years ago. The Pole said then that she had never faced a faster ball on the match court and, while she has become a far more accomplished player in the interim, first-strike power and untrammelled aggression remain the surest way to discomfit her. As she trailed by a double break, the outlook seemed bleak for the top seed. Unperturbed, she reeled off five consecutive games to complete an unforgettable comeback that extended her winning streak to 18 matches.

“The only thing you can do is just try again,” said Swiatek after completing a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory in three hours and 14 minutes. “At that point you kind of know that you may lose. You can actually relax a little bit more because you know that, ‘OK, probably I’m going to lose, so I don’t care any more.’ Then it’s easier. Sometimes it works like that. But it doesn’t change the fact that I just kept trying.”

Having beaten a former champion and a former finalist in her first two matches, there is already an epic feel about Swiatek’s progress in Melbourne. “Thriller,” she wrote on a TV camera lens at the end; and a thriller it was. Yet, on a day that just kept going and going, it was also merely an hors d’ouevre.

By the time Elena Rybakina and Anna Blinkova arrived on Laver, Carlos Alcaraz had dropped his first set of the tournament before coming through 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego, and Jessica Pegula had temporarily become the biggest casualty of the women’s draw, a  6-4, 6-2 defeat to Clara Burel of France marking the fifth-seeded American’s earliest loss since at a major in two and a half years. 

They had a lot to live up to, then, Rybakina and Blinkova. And over the two hours and 46 minutes that followed, they did not disappoint. In a contest of labyrinthine twists and turns, Blinkova variously led by a set and a break, held a 4-2 lead in the decider, served for victory at 6-5 only to be denied two match points, and then double-faulted to set up what the International Tennis Federation later declared was the longest singles tiebreak in grand slam history. 

Seeded third and expected to meet Swiatek in the semi-finals, Rybakina was regarded by many as the title favourite after demolishing Aryna Sabalenka, the Belarusian who defeated her in last year’s Australian Open final, at a warm-up event in Brisbane. But on an evening when she was below her best, the 24-year-old Kazakhstani could not quite match Swiatek’s feat of escapology. Her forehand, the source of 29 of her 46 unforced errors, repeatedly betrayed her, and although she battled to the end, Rybakina could not avert an upset. After saving nine match points and squandering six of her own, the former Wimbledon champion was edged out by the thinnest of margins in a 30-minute, 42-point thrill-fest of a tiebreak.

“This day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, especially on this court, with this crowd. I’ll never forget it,” said Blinkova, a 25-year-old Russian ranked 57th, following her 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (22-20) victory. “It’s the best day of my life so far. 

“It was super tough. I just tried to focus on every point. I had so many match points. I tried to be aggressive, but my hand was shaking – and my legs, too.”

By that point, Blinkova wasn’t alone. Even the most hardened tennis enthusiast had got their money’s worth. Nerves were frayed, eyes bloodshot and adrenaline exhausted. It was well after 11pm, Holger Rune had suffered a shock four-set defeat to Arthur Cazaux, a 21-year-old French wild card, and Daniil Medvedev, the third seed, was still waiting to start his match against Emil Ruusuvuori. 

But still the show went on. And on. And on. 

With Ruusuvuori flying, Medvedev, seeded third and a veteran of two finals, dropped the first two sets. Then, shortly after 1.30am, the redoubtable Russian began one of the finest comebacks of his career. Eventually, four hours and 23 minutes after the first ball was struck, Medvedev emerged with a 3-6, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 victory. It was 3.40am, and day five of the Australian Open had given way to day six of the Australian Open. Medvedev caught the prevailing mood perfectly.

“What is it, like, 3.40 in the morning? Honestly guys, I would not be here,” smiled the Russian, addressing the few hardy souls who remained. “Thanks for staying. If I would be a tennis fan and I would come, at 1am I would be like, ‘OK, let’s go home, we’re going to catch the end of the match on the TV. We’re going to catch 30 minutes and then go to bed.’ Thanks guys, you are strong. Strong!”

Whether such strength should be required is another matter. Before the event, new scheduling rules were announced that will ensure no match starts after 11pm without specific approval from the tournament supervisor. But those rules, which also dictate that matches not underway by 10.30pm should be moved to an alternative court, apply only to ATP and WTA events. The grand slams are free to do as they please; and at the Australian Open, where Andy Murray infamously completed a marathon win over Thanasi Kokkinakkis at 4.05am last year, what pleases the tournament may not be so agreeable to the players. 

On the eve of this year’s event, Murray responded with scepticism to organisers’ claims that starting the event a day early would minimise such late shows. “I don’t think the Sunday start will change the late finishes,” said the former world No 1 of a decision that always seemed more likely to benefit the tournament’s coffers than its players. He was, of course, right. In fact, spreading the first round of matches over three days rather than two created more problems than it solved, with Alex De Minaur among those unhappy about the extra rest afforded prospective opponents who played on the opening day.

More promising, in principle, is the decision to reduce the number of day-session matches on the two main show courts from three to two. Yet the unexpected rainfall that disrupted Swiatek and Collins after just six games, necessitating a pause while the court was dried and the roof closed, underlined the fact that nothing can be taken for granted. 

A little common sense would have helped. It was after 8pm by the time Blinkova and Rybakina started; why not simply move Medvedev and Ruusuvuori to another court once it became clear a third set would be required?

In a sport that never sleeps, late finishes have become ever more frequent. From Alexander Zverev clinching victory over Jenson Brooksby at 4.55am two years ago in Acapulco, to Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner battling it out until almost 3am at the 2022 US Open, and Rybakina prevailing at a similar hour against Daria Kasatkina at last year’s Canadian Open, the problem is clear. 

Clear, but not new. It is 16 years since Lleyton Hewitt completed a five-set win over Marcos Baghdatis at 4.34am in a match that remains the latest on record at the Australian Open. When will tennis learn that it’s not over until it’s over – and schedule accordingly? 

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It is barely a year since the 29-year-old American, buoyed by a run to the Australian Open final, reached a career-high ranking of seventh. Collins has since dropped to 48th, which meant she missed the cut for the Canadian Open main draw by just one place.

A less steely competitor might have baulked at facing the crucible of qualifying for the first time in more than four and a half years. Collins, though, has never been one to shirk a challenge, and having battled through a pair of tough three-setters against Eugenie Bouchard and Emina Bektas to make the starting line for the WTA 1000 event, she has wasted no time in reminding the field of her enduring quality. 

Through to a third quarter-final of the season after seeing off Elina Svitolina, Maria Sakkari and Leylah Fernandez in straight sets, Collins has hit a rich vein of form just in time to face Iga Swiatek, the Polish world No 1.

For a player who arrived in Montreal with just two wins from the eight matches she had played since early March, it has been quite a resurgence – one all the more impressive for the fact that, seeking to bring greater balance to her life and eager to prioritise her health, she has elected to play a more limited schedule this season. Collins believes playing qualifying has been a blessing in disguise. 

“I said last week after I lost in DC [to Liudmila Samsonova], I really just need to get more matches and time on the court, and I certainly got that in the qualifying playing two hard three-set matches and now feeling really in rhythm,” said Collins following her 6-2, 6-3 win over Fernandez.  

“I feel like this year, partly because I play a shortened schedule, sometimes I go into the tournaments where I haven’t played a lot, and I can do really well, and other times it’s hard to kind of get that match momentum.  

“What’s really been key is just getting more matches. I’ve been working so hard at my game over the last couple of years, and sometimes it takes a little bit of time to kind of see those results. I think that’s certainly what is happening.”

No less significant has been the influence of Jared Jacobs, the experienced American coach whose roster of clients has included Natasha Zvereva, a former French Open finalist and 18-time grand slam doubles champion, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Jacobs has rapidly become not only a trusted technical and tactical confidante, but also a friend with whom she has been able to share museum visits and pedicures.

“For so much of my career, I travelled by myself without a coach, and I had a little bit of success doing that,” said Collins. 

“But I think it’s been huge having Jared a part of my team and being there for me and helping me evolve my game and evolve mentally. I feel like all of the things that he’s been bringing to the table and holding me accountable for is really helping me get some better results on the court.”

Over the course of a rain-lashed week in Montreal, Collins’s singularity as a character and a competitor has stood out. She has talked animatedly of a trip to the cinema with Jacobs to see the new Barbie movie – “I could really relate to weird Barbie, that was my doll” – and made headlines after a confrontational exchange with Sakkari.

The latter incident occurred after Sakkari swiped a ball into the crowd in frustration, prompting Collins to query whether the umpire had witnessed the Greek’s transgression. “It didn’t even hit anyone,” shouted Sakkari to the other end of the court. “It was on the ground.” Collins, more interested in preparing to return a second serve, quickly closed down both the conversation and, before long, the match. “Shut your mouth,” she retorted. “Shut your mouth.”

Abrasive? Certainly. But then Collins has never been afraid to ruffle a few feathers, and the women’s game has been all the better for it.

Whether she can now silence Swiatek, who came through a repeat of this summer’s French Open final against Karolina Muchova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, is another question. When the pair faced each other in Qatar six months ago, Swiatek avenged her defeat to the American in last year’s Australian Open semi-finals in emphatic fashion. Collins, who came away with just one game to show for her troubles that day, is aware of the enormity of the task. Yet she is in no mood to relinquish the momentum she has established. 

“The first time went better than the second time, so just fingers crossed that I bring my A-game and put on a good show for everyone,” said Collins. “It’s been a great week, and I’ve had a lot of matches. I’m hoping to keep the level up.”

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As she embarks on a four-month stretch where she will be defending points every time she steps on court, it was a statement win by Swiatek. Admittedly, she was aided and abetted by an opponent who offered little by way of resistance. Faltering and listless, Collins was a shadow of her normal tenacious self, racking up 22 unforced errors and winning a paltry 28% of points on serve. Yet you can play only as well as your opponent allows, and here Swiatek gave no quarter, combining flawlessly efficient play off the ground with an outstanding display on serve as she hustled and harried the hapless Collins into submission. 

Sterner tests lie ahead, most immediately a mouth-watering quarter-final meeting with Belinda Bencic, but if Swiatek is feeling the weight of a period in which she will be called upon to defend not only her Doha crown but also titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Paris, it did not show. 

“[Last year] was a pretty nice chapter, but I’m really looking forward to the next challenges,” said Swiatek on court afterwards. “The season was great, but also it puts a lot of baggage on one’s shoulders, so I’m trying to really kind of shake it off and move forward, and not really come back to what happened last year.

“I really like playing here, it doesn’t matter what result I had last year, I just really like the conditions and I enjoy the venue and the atmosphere.”

It showed. Any optimism Collins might have felt following last year’s victory over Swiatek at Melbourne Park was rapidly extinguished as the top seed set about her task with an aggression and intent that belied her recent inactivity. It took Swiatek just 10 minutes to establish a three-game lead, and when Collins double-faulted to concede a second break, the set felt over in all but name. So it proved, Swiatek wrapping up the opener with a blistering backhand winner. The tone was set, and although Collins eventually stopped the rot after a run of nine consecutive games against her, offering a momentary glimpse of her trademark authority from the baseline, she was never able to summon the consistency required to trouble the top seed.

“I’m pretty happy that I’m already in the rhythm even though it was my first match [since the Australian Open],” said Swiatek. “From the beginning till the end I was really disciplined and focused, so I’m happy that I could use my tactics and that I stuck with it till the end of the match.

“I didn’t really let Danielle get into the rhythm. I wanted to be aggressive. I’m pretty happy that I did that well.”

It was all in stark contrast to the preceding contest, in which Jessica Pegula saved two match points and fought back from 5-2 down in the decider to claim a dramatic 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. 

“The beauty about tennis is there’s no time limit, so there’s always a chance,” said Pegula, the second seed, after playing her first match since revealing that her mother suffered a cardiac arrest last summer.

“She might be [watching], it’s a good time zone, so who knows? She probably would have been having a heart attack.”

Pegula now faces another potentially stern examination against Beatriz Haddad Maia. The Brazilian, a semi-finalist in Abu Dhabi last week, defeated Daria Kasatkina, the sixth seed, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to claim her fifth victory in six matches. 

Bencic, the champion in Abu Dhabi, fought back from a set and 4-1 down to outlast Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.  

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To the delight of the raucously partisan home crowd, Barty fought back from 5-1 down in the second set to defeat Danielle Collins of the United States, the 27th seed, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) and become the first homegrown champion since Chris O’Neil in 1978.

In an emotional conclusion to a fortnight in which she has been a model of dead-eyed focus and composure, the 25-year-old Queenslander embraced victory with a triumphal roar that would have put even Novak Djokovic to shame. What an antidote she has been to the gloom cast over the initial stages of the tournament by the Serb’s visa saga. Having ended her season early last year to focus her efforts on the Australian summer, Barty has cut a swathe through the draw with clinical precision and relentless consistency, working her way to the title without dropping a set. 

“It was a little bit surreal,” said Barty of the moments following victory. “I think I didn’t quite know what to do or what to feel, and I think just being able to let out a little bit of emotion, which is a little bit unusual for me, and I think being able to celebrate with everyone who was there in the crowd, the energy was incredible tonight. 

“I think being able to understand how much work my team and I have done behind the scenes and over the last few years, to get to this point to be able to have this opportunity, was really special. It just kind of all came out at once, and yeah – a really, really special moment.”

The Wimbledon champion’s exultation was mirrored in the stands, both by the jubilant devotees who packed the Rod Laver Arena in their thousands, unmistakeable in their bright yellow Vegemite T-shirts, and by the great and the good of the Australian sporting and celebrity firmament. O’Neil was on hand to offer a thumbs up for the cameras. Laver looked on approvingly. Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe, the stars of the Sydney Olympics, rose to salute the greatest Australian sporting success since those heady days in the summer of 2000, while Gladiator star Russell Crowe sat transfixed at courtside as the drama unfolded.  

Here indeed was a victory to echo in eternity. Barty, whose win at the All England club last summer also ended a wait of more than four decades for an Australian women’s champion, has now won grand slam titles on three different surfaces, a feat matched among active players only by Serena Williams. Fittingly, the trophy was presented by four-time champion Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, her long-time friend and mentor, and a fellow indigenous Australian, who was unveiled as a surprise guest at the post-match ceremony.   

“I thought she wasn’t coming,” said Barty. “I’d spoken to her earlier in the week, and she was staying at home and not being able to travel down this year. So to have that surprise was amazing.”

Collins acquitted herself well in her first major final. After everything that she has been through she was never going to give less than her all, and the 28-year-old showed all her trademark fighting spirit to work her way back into contention after double-faulting to drop serve in the sixth game. There was no sign of her being overawed by the occasion, and although Barty went on to seal the opening set with some imperious serving – the Australian won 82% of her first-serve points, and would finish the contest with 10 aces – Collins’ second-set fightback was as inevitable as it was impressive. Moving inside the baseline and striking her hard, flat returns with venomous power, the American briefly rocked Barty with her weight of shot and unflinching intensity.

Collins’ improvement coincided with the top seed’s first dip in form and confidence of the fortnight. As anxiety kicked in, Barty began to lose feel on her sliced backhand and power on her forehand. Her footwork slowed, her timing deserted her and, for the first time, she struggled to find her first serve. But with Collins a game away from forcing a decider, Barty steadied her nerve and went determinedly about constructing the kind of measured, intelligent points that had got her to the final in the first place, rediscovering her service rhythm and controlling the baseline exchanges with her topspin forehand as she clawed back the deficit. 

“She started to push me back in the court a little bit more,” said Collins, who is set to rise into the world’s top 10 for the first time.

“I think I was having some issues really being able to fully rotate on some of my shots to be able to get my shots to where I needed them to be. It was really unfortunate, but I did everything I could, tried to push through it. Fell short. She definitely came up with some great shots in some of those big moments, especially with her serving and pushing me back in the court.”

Collins, who had been standing at the change of ends in her previous matches, revealed that she had been suffering from a lower back injury sustained during her third-round win over the Danish teenager Clara Tauson. 

“It was the reason why I wasn’t sitting down the whole tournament,” said the American. “It was actually recommended at one point by one of the physical therapists, just to keep my back from spasming. The biggest issue has just been muscle spasms in the low back, which has been challenging.”

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