Danielle Collins' about-face should make tennis fans deliriously happy

At the beginning of 2024, Danielle Collins said she would be retiring at the end of the year. She had turned 30 years old and was living a life that was far from pain-free. Beyond the wear and tear of tennis, Collins was also dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis, two conditions that make anyone's life difficult at times.

Then a funny thing happened, however. Collins, who had been a decent but not great player during her career and who had won two titles entering 2024, began to win. She won the Miami Masters in March and followed that up by winning the Charleston Open. She made the semifinals at the Italian Open and lost in the final of the event in Strasbourg.

She started the year ranked 69 and was able to move up as high as No. 8. She will drop out of the top ten when the new rankings come out on Monday, but she is still having her most successful year on tour. Lately, however, she has not had the same high level of results and has not been as healthy as she was earlier in the year.

Danielle Collins is not quite done with her tennis career

Nearly the entire time, even while winning back-to-back events, Collins maintained that she was going to retire. She wanted to start a family, and she knew that might be more difficult with her ongoing health issues. As of Friday, though, things have changed.

Collins posted on her Instagram page that she plans to return to the WTA tour in 2025. The reason has little to do with how well she did earlier in 2024 but with the fact that she is dealing with a team of specialists who are trying to figure out a way for Collins to be able to have a family but also do so in good health. No clear answer has been found yet, so Collins feels she will just keep on playing.

Collins wrote, in part, in an IG post, "It’s been a stressful time with these horrific hurricanes that wiped through Florida, and on top of it, I’ve been dealing with some issues around my endometriosis and other health challenges. While I was very excited and eager to wrap up my tennis career on a high note this year and jump headfirst into my next chapter of life, things have not gone as planned...So, the DANIMAL story has not reached its conclusion. I will be back on tour in 2025."

Collins is a popular player in large part because of her humanity. She isn't afraid to be upset with a bad play or bad call on the court, but she also isn't afraid to make fun of herself at times. She is not a robot, and she seems like one of us. For most, her returning to tennis in 2025 is probably very happy news.

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