Bill Simons
New York
A UNIQUE DANIMAL DEPARTS: Danielle Collins has never won a Slam. She never broke into the top 5. We’ve never seen her in a Super Bowl ad. She was hardly a whiz kid. Oh well, says Danielle: “I think not being a child prodigy, not being a superstar certainly humbled me…I was kind of playing from behind…It’s made me hungrier.”
It’s hard not to love the 30-year-old.
She’s bright, transparent and outspoken. The Danimal lets you in and lets it all hang out. She’s been called “feisty” 1,973 times. She’s an unapologetic feminist and, in her way, she’s oh-so-American. She shouts loud. And don’t piss her off – she’ll get into your grill. Chris Bowers quipped, “I don’t think you want to get on her wrong side.”
From the outset, Danielle loved the individualism of tennis, in contrast to a team sport like soccer, where she said, “You run around a field all afternoon with a bunch of girls.”
Collins told us, “I love making it a war…If somebody wants to get in my face on my unforced errors, I have no problem getting right back at them…I love when things get competitive. I’m always talking crap, pulling people’s legs.”
There are now two American women in the top 15 who are the offspring of vastly wealthy men, but Collins is no billionaire’s daughter. Her dad was a fisherman, she began playing in Florida’s public parks, and she emerged slowly. As a freshman at Florida, she didn’t make the Gators starting line-up. So she transferred to Virginia and won the NCAA championships.
There were dicey Greyhound bus rides and lots of bloody knees. But a $100,000 developmental grant from Oracle certainly helped. She went on to reach the 2022 Aussie Open final. After losing in Melbourne, she announced that this year would be her last on tour. It was as if a weight had been lifted off of her. She played with abandon, won 15 matches in a row, claimed the Miami and Charlotte titles and rose to No. 7 in the world.
She reached the Olympics quarterfinals and then suffered a heat stroke while playing Iga Swiatek. Today, she fell in three modest sets to her fellow American, Caroline Dolehide. The match will soon be forgotten, but fans will long remember “the Danimal,” who spoke so openly about her physical problems, her devastating injuries and the toll of the tour. Being a professional tennis player and being “lonesome often are inextricably interwoven,” Danielle observed.
These are not great days for cat ladies, but Collins is a dog person who adores her poodle-like hound Quincy. Then again, the Danimal is known for barking at herself and the crowd. She recently told a rowdy throng in Mexico, “It’s not that hard to let us play tennis and be supportive.”
Collins wants to stay involved with tennis. She said, “I’m really close with a lot of these girls. I see how hard everyone works and how much heart and soul they put into [tennis] from the time they’re three – it’s just incredible. So I would like to give back.”
Even today, after her last Grand Slam singles match, Danielle showed her vulnerability, when she refused to accept a lovely bouquet from Tournament Director Stacey Allaster.
Collins explained, “I’m not somebody that likes to celebrate my accomplishments. I’ve struggled with feeling guilt around success, and that’s something I have had to work on. So I’m not great at having an all-about-me moment…I feel like I’ve gotten enough attention to last a lifetime…The journey has been great. Yeah, I’m a little bit out of gas…I’m just ready for that next chapter.”
But we’re not. For seven brief but memorable years the tales of Danielle in the lion’s den have inspired.
EPIC EVANS WIN: While Danille Collins is leaving the game, Daniel Evans is now in the record book. The gritty Brit came back from 0-4 in the fifth set to down Russian Karen Khachanov, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4, in the longest match in US Open history. The 5:35 battle surpassed Stefan Edberg’s 5:26 marathon win over Michael Chang in 1992.
A FAIR QUESTION: John McEnroe and Chris Fowler debated whether it was better for American fans to have five men in the top 20 (No. 12 Taylor Fritz, No. 13 Ben Shelton, No. 14 Tommy Paul, No. 16 Seb Korda and No. 20 Frances Tiafoe) or one woman (Coco Gauff) with a high likelihood of winning a Slam. McEnroe contended that, at the very least, with all of America’s good male players, we are in better shape this year than in recent memory.
OSAKA – ‘I HEAR MYSELF SCREAMING:’ No matter whether Naomi Okaka is winning or losing, on magazine covers or not, about to deliver a child or not delivering on court, she’s one of the most compelling players in the game. What post-Williams player has had a more intriguing coming of age narrative?
She’s been making major fashion statements at the Open and has long been open and transparent (except when she isn’t). We’ve seen her go from a delightful innocent to a struggling star searching to recapture the form that enabled her to win four Slams and become No. 1.
Today, Naomi downed the hard-hitting Jelena Ostapenko, the No. 10 seed, to score her first win over a Top 10 player in 1,691 days. After her win, she wept. Then again, the 26-year-old has gone from one fascinating drama to another.
She cried after she won the tumultuous 2018 US Open. The next year she comforted the weepy Coco Gauff. Then she took the lead during the George Floyd turmoil. She poignantly spoke of her mental health problems and boycotted French Open press conferences. Now she’s become a role model for mothers trying to come back.
But after her 15-month maternity break, her return to the circuit has been tough. Eight months into her comeback, she told us that she still didn’t feel like herself and was concerned about her lack of accuracy and power. She said her recent loss in qualifying in Cincinnati was the biggest loss of her career.
She confided, “My biggest issue is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body. It’s a strange feeling – missing balls I shouldn’t miss, hitting balls softer than…I used to. I try to tell myself: ‘It’s fine, you’re doing great. Just…keep pushing.’ Mentally it’s really draining, though. Internally, I hear myself screaming: ‘What the hell is happening?’…The only feeling I could liken to how I feel right now is being postpartum.”
Naomi added, “That scares me because I’ve been playing tennis since I was three. The racket should feel like an extension of my hand…This should be as simple as breathing…I genuinely did not give myself grace for that fact.”
Still, Osaka said she loved putting in the work and “eventually having the opportunity to get to where you want to be.”
Not surprisingly, her win today was a poignant triumph.
THE SINNER WHO’S TAKING ON AMERICA? World No. 1 Jannik Sinner could face three Americans in the first four rounds. Today he came from behind to down Mackie McDonald. He next plays another Californian, 19-year-old Alex Michelsen, and he could face Tommy Paul in the fourth round.
SAY IT ISN’T SLOANE: In the last match of the 2017 US Open, Sloane Stephens swept by the diminished Madison Keys to gain glory, fame and fortune. This year, in the first match of opening night, Stephens raced to a 6-0, 4-1 lead over No. 42 Clara Burel. No problemo. But she couldn’t close, and lost 0-6, 7-5, 7-5.
NO WAY, ZHANG SHUAI: Over the past 574 days, China’s Zhang Shuai has lost a record 23 matches in a row, including her loss today to American Ashlyn Krueger. [Editor’s Note: You actually have to be pretty good to put yourself in a position to lose 23 straight WTA matches.]
NERDS OF THE WORLD UNITE: GOETHE COMES TO CENTER COURT: Tennis nerds around the world may now be sending flowers to Rafa’s uncle Toni, who, when reflecting on the Jannik Sinner debacle, quoted the German thinker Goethe: “Wickedness needs no reason, a pretext is enough.” All this left us scurrying to our list of Goethe quotes. But we couldn’t decide which was our fave: “Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is the watchword of the wise,” or “Life is the childhood of our immortality.”
A COLD CANADIAN AND A GREEK TRAGEDY: Felix Auger-Aliassime won Olympic bronze, but he’s lost five times in the first round in his last seven Slams. Today he was crushed 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 by Czech Jakub Mensick, 18, who’s the youngest ATP player in the top 100. And the best Greek player in the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas, again underperformed in New York. The No. 11 meekly fell to No. 86 Thanasi Kokkinakis, the second best active player in the world who’s of Greek heritage.
BUSY LADY: The American teen phenom Iva Jovic is playing five US Open events in the main draw and juniors.
BIG GIRLS AND SMALL TENNIS PLAYERS DON’T CRY: The diminutive 5’ 6” Diego Schwartman is yet another tennis star who’s stepping away from the game. After playing his last US Open match, the 32-year-old Argentine said, “I’m not supposed to cry now. I have to be strong.”
THE POWER OF FASHION: Naomi Osaka reflected on the stunning outfit she wore on court that was created by designer Yun Qu. She said, “Yun is so nice. She accepted doing this project, and we’ve been talking about it for a few years. So just to be able to wear it and see it come to life and see that people are excited to see it is really cool. It’s based on Japanese and Harajuku culture. I chose the color like at least a year ago. I love to be involved in everything I do, whether it’s fashion or anything…Being able to be a part of my tennis outfits gives me a different strength. Especially the US Open outfits…[that] are a little bit more flamboyant. When I was putting on my outfit today, I was, like, ah, I hope this isn’t too much [laughing]. Because I had the tutu and then I had the bow jacket and it was green, I felt like everyone was staring at me funny.”
WINNING UGLY: No. 1 Iga Swiatek had a dicey day at her Arthur Ashe Stadium office, with 41 unforced errors. Still, she managed to edge out the Russian Kamilla Rakhimova. The Pole is 22-1 in first rounds in majors and has never lost to a lucky loser or a qualifier. BTW: Novak Djokovic had 40 unforced errors, donated ten double faults and missed most of his overheads. He still won in straight sets.
AMERICA WATCH: NorCal’s two singles entries fell as Mackie McDonald (Piedmont) lost in four sets to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Katie Volynets (Walnut Creek) lost in straight sets to Czech Karolina Muchova. Four SoCal players were in action, with Aliso Viejo’s Alex Michelsen beating qualifier Eliot Spizzirri from Texas. Thousand Oaks’ Marcos Giron lost to No. 10, Aussie Alex De Minaur, and Irvine’s wildcard Learner Tien took a set off of No. 24 Arthur Fils of France before falling in four. Wildcard Zach Svajda from San Diego lost to Italian No. 30 Matteo Arnaldi. Kalamazoo champ and wildcard Matthew Forbes lost to Russian Roman Safiullin. NCAA singles champ Alexa Noel, Ann Li and Bernarda Pera also fell, but Ashlyn Krueger and Varvara Lepchenko are through to the second round.
Also reporting: Lucia Hoffman and Vinay Venkatesh
