The Danielle Collins swansong has been a captivating spectacle of an athlete truly leaving their mark on tennis.
After announcing in January that she will be retiring at season’s end, the American has gone from strength-to-strength and produced her best ever run of form.
Collins’ 2024 win percentage of 78.05% (32-9 win-loss) is her best in a single season, and only in 2021 did she register more wins in a calendar year, with 37.
Her success is coming more so than ever at big events; Collins has already captured a career-high number of match wins at WTA-1000 tournaments, including her first title at that level in Miami.
In her latest WTA-1000 run at the Italian Open, she became the fourth American in history to reach the Rome semifinals after turning 30, joining icons Serena Williams, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.
Bringing her typical high-energy style of play, Collins is powering through tournaments with incredible consistency, and has returned to the top 20 for the first time in over a year.
Casey Dellacqua is one of many onlookers who have found Collins’ rejuvenation a joy to watch.
“There's no one more fierce and that has more confidence, and assurance, about her game and herself, than Danielle Collins,” Dellacqua explained on the The AO Show Weekly podcast.
“If there’s one person that has that fire in the belly and is ready to get up for a win, she would.”
Along with her strong on-court demeanour, the always-honest Collins has been a breath of fresh air off the court as well.
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“I've been really loving the content that we've seen with Danielle Collins and Andy Roddick,” Dellacqua said. “Just getting a little bit more insight into who Danielle Collins is, even as a person, which I think has been really delightful.”
Collins appeared this week on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, and asked the former world No.1 if he had any tips for her on court.
“For on court? Not right now. I wouldn't tell you a damn thing right now, with the way that you've been playing,” Roddick replied.
“Set yourself up in the middle of the court and just distribute the way you've been doing it.
"The way you're playing reminds me a little bit of my idol, Andre Agassi, where he would set himself up right in the middle. Can go line, can go cross.
“It was always on you in a hurry, you always felt like you were rushed, and it never stopped. It was like suffocating."
Agassi is also someone whom Collins looked up to in her younger years.
After claiming her biggest title of her career in Miami, she told Tennis Channel that she studied the eight-time major champion’s return game, considered one of the greatest ever.
“Andre Agassi was, like, my return idol,” said Collins, who this year owns the second-best percentage of second-serve return points won, at 60.3%.
“I can’t tell you how much footage I watched of Andre, standing inside the baseline, ripping returns.
“To be out here, and have that full-circle moment, when I saw Andre was watching the match, I almost teared up.
“I’m like, ‘this is surreal, I used to watch this guy on TV as a kid, and now I’m here and he’s in the stands, and (I) heard his voice at one point’.”