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Danielle Collins ends year of pain with quarter-final place in Australian Open

<span>Photograph: Paul Crock/AFP/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Paul Crock/AFP/Getty Images
  • Player defeated Elise Mertens 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours

  • American underwent emergency surgery to treat endometriosis


Just under a year ago, right in the heat of another Australian summer, Danielle Collins was reduced to a level of pain that she would not wish on another soul. By the third set of her match against Daria Kasatkina in the Philip Island Trophy, an event held at Melbourne Park during the second week of the Australian Open, she fell to the ground while severely cramping in her abdominal muscles and pelvis.

Through her pained tears, Collins had to resort to hitting underarm serves and throwing up desperate moonballs but she fell 6-1 in the final set. A week later, she withdrew from a tournament in Adelaide with severe back pain that flared up around her cycle but would not show up on MRI scans.

Related: Australian Open 2022: Swiatek beats Cirstea and Fritz v Tsitsipas in last 16 – live!

One year on, Collins has returned to the scene of those brutal moments and on Monday she continued one of the most impressive and heartening stories in the sport by reaching the quarter-final of the Australian Open, defeating Elise Mertens 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in nearly three hours.

During those days when Collins was in constant pain, she did not know what was causing it. Her consultations with doctors all yielded the same unconvincing responses - that her period pains were normal and that anti-inflammatory medicine would help. Eventually, they did not. Her health became progressively worse and in April 2021, Collins underwent emergency surgery to treat endometriosis.

Endometriosis is an extremely painful condition in which tissue similar to the tissue that lines the uterus grows outside of it, and affects an estimated one in ten women. For Collins, it marked the second major health diagnosis of her short professional career as she also was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018, an autoimmune disease that causes painful swelling in the joints.

“Super satisfying and rewarding,” said Collins of her quarter-final run a year on. “Because I think any time you’re going to have a surgery like I had, I think any athlete would find it less than ideal and nerve-racking knowing how your body is going to recover after that type of surgery. It’s extremely painful and scary.”

Despite all of the obstacles before her, an athlete fighting her own body, Collins continues to rise. Since returning to the court following her surgery, her quality of life has improved significantly and she has played some of her best tennis of her career. Collins is a former Australian Open semi-finalist but she has never been as consistent as in recent months. She won her first two WTA titles in consecutive weeks last summer and since mid July she has compiled a 27-6 (82%) record.

“Before my surgery and before I was on the proper medication, I was always having to adjust my training around my cycle, because of how painful my periods were,” said Collins. “And now with things being more consistent, I’m able to kind of train more consistently and not have to have such drastic changes, especially the week of my cycle.”

On Monday, Mertens and Collins duelled in a deciding set of the highest quality. Collins is armed with one of the most destructive, versatile two-handed backhands in the game and she combines her high-octane shotmaking with dynamic athleticism.

With the match finely balanced at 4-4, 30-30 in the final set, Collins took control. She obliterated winners off both forehand and backhand wings, punctuating them with trademark cries of: “Come on” as she successfully reached her third career major quarter-final.

“I’m just very relieved that the surgery went well for me, and that now I’m able to perform more consistently from a physical standpoint,” she said. “I think that’s helped me a lot mentally, knowing that. It’s given me a lot more confidence on court. I just feel, as a person, more consistent on a day-to-day basis, because I’m not having such terrible fluctuations and such painful, really just awful days around those periods.”

Collins is a singular character in professional tennis and her exuberance on the court has not always meshed well with everyone. But the fire she exhibits on court is the exact same toughness that has allowed her to face the many obstacles before her and keep moving on.