World No. 30 Danielle Collins thinks she is now a much better player than she was in 2019 when she made her maiden Australian Open semifinal. Collins, 28, defeated France’s Alize Cornet 7-5 6-1 to reach the Australian Open semifinal.
Collins suffered a straight-set defeat to Petra Kvitova in the 2019 Australian Open semifinal. « I think my serving has gotten a lot stronger, » Collins said in her post-match press conference, per the WTA website.
« I think my stamina on court has improved tremendously. I think just overall power and speed has improved. That’s something that I focused so much on over the last couple years. I think that’s probably the biggest difference to where I was, if I compare my semifinal run here in 2019.
« No matter who I’m going to play, they’re going to be very tough competitors, very relentless, powerful, strong, everything you would expect in a semifinal. « Last time I was here in the semifinals I had never done that before.
I’ve made some deeper runs in tournaments since then. Hopefully I can carry the confidence that I’ve gained over the last couple years and be able to use that to my advantage. »
Collins cruised past Cornet
Collins made a positive start to the match, having claimed the first break of the match in the fourth game.
Cornet refused to give up as she broke back Collins in the ninth game when the American was serving for the first set. However, failing to serve out for the first set didn’t affect Collins as she broke Cornet in the 12th game to seal the opener.
After losing a tight first set, Cornet’s game fell apart as she dropped her serve in back-to-back games at the start of the second set. Cornet served out the sixth game to end Collins’ seven-game run but the American routinely served out for the match in the following game. Collins plays Iga Swiatek in the Australian Open semifinal.