She is renowned as one of the most fearless and tenacious competitors on the tour. But when Danielle Collins woke up one morning on a weekend away with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to learn she was going rock climbing, her first thought ran to terror.
“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.