The trajectory towards retirement is usually downward. Take the example of Rafael Nadal, who is struggling to rediscover his former dominance on clay because of his ageing body. Andy Murray is another who is clearly not as sharp on the court as he once was.
Not so for Danielle Collins, who is firing towards the end on full cylinders. Ranked outside the world’s top 50 at the start of this year, when she announced that this would be her final season as a professional, the 30-year-old American arrives at the French Open on Sunday back inside the top ten for the first time since August 2022.
Few in tennis bow out on a high. Pete Sampras is probably the most notable member of this small group, although it took him another year to confirm that he was not returning after a 14th grand-slam victory at the 2002 US Open, but Collins has every chance of bidding farewell with a trophy in her hand. She has won 22 of her past 25 matches, including two titles in 2024, though she did lose 6-1, 6-2 to her compatriot Madison Keys in the Strasbourg Open final on Saturday.
Some of you may understandably ask, why finish now? Collins has repeatedly had this question put to her in recent months and is still adamant that her racket will be put away for good at the end of this season. There are no signs as yet of a rethink.
The reason for this resolute refusal to carry on is her health. Collins suffers from endometriosis, a condition in which tissue that normally lies inside the uterus grows outside it. Although there was some relief when a cyst the size of a tennis ball was removed from an ovary during surgery in 2021, it still could cause difficulties in becoming pregnant if she wishes to start a family.
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“People want to see me playing longer,” Collins said this month. “I think people feel bad about my health stuff. Everybody has different ways of ending their professional journey.
“For me, I want to go out playing my best tennis because I certainly wouldn’t want to go out playing my worst tennis. It’s important for me to feel like, ‘OK, I got everything I could out of myself as an athlete,’ and end on a positive note, rather than being like, ‘Oh God. What happened?’ ”
Interestingly, Collins feels as though the mental shackles have been released now that she has accepted the end is nigh. That has been apparent in the way she has exhibited a clearer state of mind on the court this year, beating the likes of Elena Rybakina and Ons Jabeur. She is so intently focused on her daily routines that there has been little time to dwell on thoughts about her future.
“You can have different ways of thinking about it,” Collins said. “But I just don’t really feel like I have the time to sit, ponder and get too deep into the thoughts because honestly the day-to-day [routines] with us as athletes is a lot. It’s more than a 9am to 5pm job, because it’s around the clock.
“Honestly, I’m just so consumed with doing all the things I need to do to get prepared for the next day.”
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Collins has retained the fierce competitiveness that led to her being described by a former opponent, Alizé Cornet, as a lion on the court. This year, though, she has made technical improvements to pile the pressure on those across the net. Often she can produce a barrage of hard-hitting groundstrokes that is somewhat overwhelming, as observed by the former world No1 Andy Roddick.
“We were talking after Charleston [where Collins won the title this year] and I said, ‘The way you’re playing reminds me a little bit of my idol, Andre Agassi,’ ” Roddick told Collins during an interview for his Served podcast. “He would set himself up right in the middle, [where he] can go down the line, can go cross-court, but it [the shot] was always on you in a hurry. You always felt like you were rushed and it never stopped. It was suffocating. What I am seeing from you is the ability to stand in the centre of that court and completely control that.”
Collins is at her best on a hard court and finished runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open, but she is more than capable of going deep at the French Open. While clay is a slower surface on which it is harder for Collins to hit winners straight off the bat, her tactical approach still allows her to work her opponents around the court and entice the error.
“I’m timing the ball really well,” Collins said. “I think I have made some physical adjustments that’ve helped me control my shots more and hit them with more accuracy and precision. I have been working on that for a while.
“I feel like one of the things that I have been working on over the course of my career is having good body control. I think with it being a rotational sport, the tendency to rotate and use a lot of power and force — well, I’m still doing that. But I think I have improved a lot of my core strength. That’s helped me be able to stay a little bit more [in the points] still.”
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There is another factor that has helped. Perhaps with retirement in mind, Collins has rekindled a childhood love for golf, taking any opportunity during her downtime at tournaments to find a local course. It has proved somewhat invigorating for her and there are plenty of courses surrounding Paris to enjoy on her free days here.
“It’s been a really great outlet on my off days to have something to look forward to,” Collins said. “When I’m in other tournaments like California or Australia, I do like to surf and get out there, but not every place that we go offers surfing. So golf has filled that void a little bit.
“I’m someone that needs a lot of mental stimulation. By learning new things, I feel like it keeps my brain sharp, keeps me thinking about different things, keeps me from focusing on tennis too much.
“It also makes the tennis more fun because I’m so bad at golf that when I come out and play tennis, compared to my golf game, I’m a lot better. So that could be helping my confidence and making me more relaxed.”
