When the crowning moment of her career arrived, Danielle Collins did not greet it with a roar of triumph or one of her signature fist pumps.
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.