Danielle Collins is playing like a woman possessed

Danielle Collins is already the breakout star of the 2024 season. And to think she's been on the tour circuit for what feels like forever, and it wasn't until she planned to retire that her fiery game became more ferocious for the tour. Maybe her knowing the end was near for her tennis career made her ability to focus on the court easier.

Three weeks ago, Danielle Collins was outside the top 50. With her win over Daria Kasatkina in the Charleston Open final she is 15th in the world. Collins now leads the tour with the most match wins this season alongside Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina. She has doubled her title count in the space of three weeks.

Collins has hit such a purple patch that she is dismantling her opponents and hitting winners left, right and centre. With nothing to lose, the rest of the tour must be better prepared to face her than ever.

Danielle Collins is playing with nothing to lose attitude

What Danielle Collins has been doing in the past few weeks illustrates how much of this sport is psychological. Confidence is a hugely important element that leads to success, and confidence builds off of itself and it's a solid build as you're building on belief, rather than on mere hope.

Once Collins announced that she'd be retiring this year, she relaxed. She began playing loose and no longer thinking about her ranking or previous losses. This removed a lot of the pressure.

Collins' serve used to be one of her weaknesses, but it looks like she has worked on it. She's been serving extremely well recently saving break points with aces and hitting big second serves. Couple that with the shot selection and accuracy, she can hit a crazy angle from any spot on the court. Her backhand was always impressive, but it has never looked better. It's so difficult to play against someone treeing and serving like that.

She is getting better with every match and if she can keep this momentum going into the European clay season, she has a great chance to qualify for the Olympics.

What Collins is doing is so inspiring, managing arthritis and endometriosis and still playing this well is the stuff of legends. She is showing that she is retiring because she wants to, not because she has to. Not many players get to go out like this.

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