Danielle Collins won the 2024 Miami Open, but her comments after the event prove just why she's retiring at the end of the year.
Collins is a great tennis player, and that was never really in question. The question was always her health, which is the main reason why she's retiring at the end of the 2024 season. Sometimes, she's healthy, which happened this week, but then, just recently, she wasn't healthy at all.
Winning an event seemed impossible just two weeks ago, and that's why Collins counts herself lucky to have this experience, especially since her career will be over at the end of this year. She actually couldn't walk two weeks ago, which just sounds crazy, but that's the reality of how things quickly change for her.
"Two weeks ago looked a little different. I was coming off a back injury that happened in Austin. I was devastated not to be able to finish out that tournament, because that's also a really important event for me."
"It's one of my home tournaments and one of my favorite events of the year. Then I went to Indian Wells and had multiple days off in a row. I had a few days, not exaggerating, I literally, like, couldn't walk."
It was a terrible situation for Collins, as she worked really hard to be ready for the Sunshine Double, and missing it would have been a huge letdown. She was able to get it under control and play in Indian Wells and Miami, with the Miami Open ending spectacularly for her.
"I was having to have my boyfriend help me a lot. It was awful. There were a lot of tears about, oh, my gosh, I have played all these tournaments, I have worked so hard for this, and now we're at Indian Wells and Miami and this is happening, like, why?"
"Luckily with I think the help of the physical therapy and chiropractor we were able to kind of get it under control and make some adjustments too with some of my training and recovery and got it to a place where it was more manageable. After Indian Wells I was able to get a couple good days of practice."
0 Comments