Australian Open 2022: After years of pain, fit-again Danielle Collins bringing unrelenting intensity to the court-Sports News , Firstpost

Danielle Collins in action against Iga Swiatek during their semifinal match at the Australian Open 2022. AP

If Danielle Collins’ game face is carved from stone, her game is pure steel.

The American has played some flawless first-strike tennis to make way into her first major final. After ending Alize Cornet’s fairytale run 7-5, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, Collins stormed past seventh seed Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-1 in just 78 minutes in the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Thursday.

Both Cornet and Swiatek had been stunned into submission. “All the time you feel really oppressed,” the French veteran had said of Collins’ game. “I couldn’t, like, place my game. She just never let me do it, never gave me the time to do it.” Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, echoed the sentiment. “I was prepared for her playing aggressive game, but I think that was the fastest ball I have ever played against on a match,” the Pole said.

While Collins always possessed the game to shine bright on the big stage, her resilience has been exemplary for the past few months. Last April, Collins had to undergo emergency surgery for endometriosis, a condition where the tissue that lines the uterus starts growing outside of it.

Collins had been suffering from, and playing despite, the issue since she finished college in 2016. During an extensive interview with the official WTA website in August 2021, the 28-year-old listed some of the physical issues caused by the disorder: ‘contraction-like cramping in my low pelvis and abdominal muscles, terrible sciatic nerve pain that would go all the way down into my foot where I would literally lose feeling and have stabbing pain throughout my spine.’

For a long time, she tried to mask the crippling pain with anti-inflammatories. At the 2021 Australian Open, Collins collapsed on court during her second-round defeat Karolina Pliskova and the doctor had to be rushed on court. She retired during the Adelaide International quarterfinal against Swiatek and underwent surgery after her Round of 64 loss at the Miami Open.

“It’s extremely painful and scary,” she recalled after her win over Elise Mertens in the fourth round of the 2022 Australian Open. “Because there are a lot of important things in life that you learn about during those surgeries. I think any time you’re going to have a surgery like I had, any athlete would find it less than ideal and nerve-racking knowing how your body is going to recover after that type of surgery.”

While the American was back on court by French Open in May, it wasn’t the end of her ‘health challenges.’ Of the four cuts in the abdominal wall made for her surgery, one tore open during her third-round clash against Serena Williams forcing her out for a few more weeks.

Once the fit-again Collins made a proper comeback in July, she has been on a great run. The former University of Virginia player won back-to-back titles in Palermo and San Jose and has compiled a 36-10 win-loss record. As her confidence in her body has grown, Collins has been playing with renewed freedom.

The American had burst onto the stage at the 2019 Australian Open when she powered into the semifinal on her debut in Melbourne. An aggressive baseliner and fierce competitor — who likes to punctuate her winners with ‘Come on!’ and ‘Let’s go!’ — Collins had made an immediate impact on the Grand Slam stage.

Despite the obstacles in her course over the last three years, Collins has played with the same unrelenting intensity at this year’s Australian Open. The 28-year-old had lost the opening set against Clara Tauson in the third round, and then against Mertens in the fourth round. But Collins, who was called ‘Tenacious D’ by one of her former coaches, clawed back, found a way to win.

On Thursday, against Swiatek, she was in devastating form. Dressed in black, her backhand locked and loaded, Collins was a woman on a mission. Her face betrayed little emotion as she pummeled the ball past the hapless Swiatek. The American struck 27 winners, won 51 percent of the receiving points and lorded over the shorter rallies, winning 51 of the 76 points that lasted less than four shots.

“For sure in practices I have hit maybe the same speed, but on matches it’s different because players don’t want to take that much risk,” Swiatek said of her opponent. “But it seemed for her that it wasn’t even risky because she was playing it with control.”

The Pole put up a brief fight in the first set, when she came back from 0-4 down. But she didn’t have the weapons to stop a rampaging opponent. Collins closed out the semifinal on second match point. With Swiatek serving at 30-40, she struck another blistering crosscourt backhand that went unanswered. It was followed by a quick wave to the crowd. There were no wild celebrations, no dramatic displays as she booked a place in her maiden Grand Slam final.

“It’s been an incredible journey, this tournament,” she said in the post-match press conference. “Today with the tactics and game plan I had, getting off to the solid start that I had, I felt like I was really in the zone. There wasn’t a lot getting in my way.”

The No 27 seed Collins, who will enter the top-10 when the rankings are released on Monday, will hope to get back in the zone as she clashes with World No 1 Ash Barty for Grand Slam glory.

Fire to Barty’s ice.