Achi news desk-
Danielle Collins has boosted her title hopes in her farewell season as the unseeded American beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Miami Open.
Collins, who announced in January that she would retire from professional tennis at the end of this season, won 89.7 percent of her first serve points against 23rd seed Garcia.
She never faced a break point and converted three of her eight break point opportunities.
The victory, sealed in a tidy 80 minutes, marked the first time Collins had won five matches in a row on the WTA Tour since the Australian Open in 2022, when she reached her first grand slam final.
Since losing her first set in Miami to compatriot Bernarda Pera, Collins has won 10 in a row and lost just 19 matches.
Her 80-minute victory over Garcia, who beat Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff in back-to-back rounds to reach the quarter-finals in Miami for the first time, marks her third win against a seeded player in five matches over seven last Thursday.
She has also bested Sorana Cirstea from Romania (19th seed) and Anastasia Potapova (30th) from Russia.
“Caro comes out here and fights her head off,” Collins said in her court interview.
“She hits some really strong shots … I don’t think the set scores are a reflection of how close the match really was.
“Against someone like Caro, it forces me to be more concentrated, because I know I don’t want to give her an inch.”
Next up for the 30-year-old Collins will be either fellow countryman fifth seed Jessica Pegula or Russian 14th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
