Danielle Collins candidly admitted that she felt discouraged by her college background once she started to play among the professionals.
College tennis is a decent way of preparing to become a professional player, but not many choose it. Quite a few notable players had that experience, though some think that going into the professionals immediately might be better overall.
As with many things, it's probably not a rule because everybody is so different. Collins had that college experience early on in her career, but once she turned to the WTA Tour, she felt discouraged by it because fellow players were a bit dismissive.
Talking to the WTA Insider after her Miami Open run, Collins admitted that she heard all sorts of remarks when she made the Australian Open semi-final in 2019 at the age of 25. She had turned pro only three years earlier at age 22, which is late for a tennis player.
"When I first got on the tour, I remember I felt almost discouraged because I went to college. I remember after I made the semifinals in Australia, people were like, 'Oh, do you know Collins never won a match before this?' I'm like, 'I'd only played three or four tournaments.' I had former players much older than me come up to me and go, like, 'Wow, I was retiring at your age!'"
Having a college education was hard to justify, even though it should be something commendable, because so many people were judgmental about it. In the end, now, with retirement coming relatively soon, Collins is more comfortable with it because it worked out.
"This is, like, hard, sometimes, to justify what I was doing and the path that I took to so many people. Sponsors and people in this industry, because tennis is one of these sports where we have so much rich tennis tradition."