Danielle Collins

Danielle Rose Collins (born December 13, 1993) is an American professional tennis player.

She has reached career-high WTA rankings of No. 7 in singles and No. 79 in doubles.

Collins has won two WTA Tour singles titles, at the 2021 Palermo Open and the 2021 Silicon Valley Classic, and one WTA Tour doubles title at the 2023 Charleston Open with Desirae Krawczyk.

She reached her first major singles final at the 2022 Australian Open.

In 2009, Collins played her first events on the ITF Women's Circuit.

She trained at the Isla Del Sol Yacht & Country Club in St. Petersburg for six years and IMG Academy from 2010 to 2012.

She won her first ITF singles title in 2011.

She graduated from Northeast High School, St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2012.

She was considered the No. 2 recruit of the class of 2012 and she received a scholarship from the University of Florida.

Collins played one season of college tennis for the Florida Gators, going 24–8 in singles.

She then transferred to the University of Virginia, an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) school.

Collins had a stellar career with the Virginia Cavaliers, with a cumulative record of 101–20.

She did not play any professional matches in 2013 and 2015 while she was playing college tennis at Virginia.

Collins played collegiate tennis at the University of Virginia and won the NCAA singles title twice, during her sophomore and senior years in 2014 and 2016.

She finished her career in Virginia as the top-ranked collegiate player.

Named to the All-ACC first team in all three seasons, she helped Virginia win consecutive ACC Championships in 2014 and 2015.

At the NCAA Championships, she became the first Cavalier to the win the singles title in 2014 and became the seventh two-time champion in 2016.

Collins made her WTA Tour main-draw debut as a wildcard player at the 2014 US Open in the Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she forced second seed Simona Halep to a third-setter in the first round.

She finished her college career in 2016 as the nation's top-ranked player and received the Honda Sports Award for tennis.

Collins graduated from Virginia with a bachelor's degree in media studies and business.

She returned to UF for graduate school to earn a master's degree in sports management in a program partnering with the WTA.

In mid-2016, she turned fully professional.

During her time on the ITF Circuit, she won four singles titles.

Collins started the year reaching the final round of qualifying at the Australian Open, before being outclassed by Denisa Allertová, in two sets.

However, she received a wildcard at the WTA 125 tournament at Newport Beach, and claimed the title there, which saw her rise to a career-high ranking of No. 120 at that time.

Another impressive run at another WTA 125 tournament, this time in Indian Wells, saw her reach the quarterfinals and thus earn a wild card for the Indian Wells Open, a Premier Mandatory tournament that also takes place there.

There, she won her first ever WTA Tour match against compatriot Taylor Townsend, before beating world No. 14, Madison Keys, in straight sets, followed by a victory over Sofya Zhuk.

Although her run ended in the fourth round against former world No. 6, Carla Suárez Navarro, Collins made her top-100 debut, jumping from No. 117 to 93.

Getting through the qualifying rounds at the Miami Open, Collins beat world No. 37, Irina-Camelia Begu, in straight sets, before upsetting two-time major semifinalist CoCo Vandeweghe, in three sets.

Victories over Donna Vekić and Monica Puig followed, before she earned the biggest victory of her career, beating her idol, former world No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion, Venus Williams, who was the eighth-ranked player coming into their encounter.

With this win, she became the first qualifier ever to reach the semifinals at the Miami Open.

She then faced sixth-seeded Jeļena Ostapenko and lost in straight sets, despite having a set point in the first set.

After making it to the quarterfinals in Monterrey, Collins broke into the top 50 for the first time.

Collins only won back-to-back main-draw matches at two other tournaments the rest of the season, reaching the third round of the Eastbourne International and the semifinals in San Jose (both Premier-level events) and lost in the opening round at the remaining three Grand Slams.

Nonetheless, she finished the year ranked No. 36 in the world, more than 100 spots above her previous best year-end ranking.

Her rise continued at the Australian Open.

Prior to the tournament, she had never won a match at a major event.

Having first established herself on the WTA Tour when she reached the semifinals of the 2018 Miami Open as a qualifier, her breakthrough came at the 2019 Australian Open where she advanced to the semifinals, defeating world No. 2 Angelique Kerber en route.

Collins was also a quarterfinalist at the 2020 French Open in singles, and a semifinalist at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships in doubles.

Collins is the daughter of Walter and Cathy Collins.