Tennis Alum, Olympian Danielle Collins Determined To Go Out on Top

And now she’s preparing to take some swings in Paris as a member of the U.S. Olympic tennis team, alongside fellow UVA alum Emma Navarro.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Collins said. “And it is one of the highest honors you can receive as an athlete, playing for your country. I love being on a team, and it has always been a goal of mine to be an Olympian. So it really means a lot.”

Success at UVA

The last time Collins was on a tennis team was 2016 at UVA, where she spent three years as a Cavalier after transferring from the University of Florida. She won the NCAA Division I singles title twice.

She turned pro after graduation and found herself largely alone in a different world.

“When you’re in college, you have the energy from the team, the camaraderie from the team,” she said. “That brings a lot of joy to your life. And when you transition into playing professional tennis, it is an individual sport. I did not have the luxury of having a full team around me.

“While I did have some support, and some financial support, that helped me get my career started,” she continued, “I did most of it on my own.”

Collins climbed the ranks until she was once America’s top female player and No. 7 in the world. But for every success, she suffered a setback. The chronic ache in her joints, she later learned, was rheumatoid arthritis. Doctors also diagnosed her with endometriosis, a painful condition where uterine-like tissue grows outside the uterus. That diagnosis led to surgery.

Collins wants to start a family, but the health challenges, the grind of an 11-month season and the frequent international travel complicate that goal.

“I think it is important for all of us, at the bare minimum, to be able to have some time at home and to be able to live somewhat of a normal life,” she said. “And it’s nearly impossible for tennis players.”

So, in January, at age 30, she announced 2024 would be her final year on tour.

Just Being Herself

Since that announcement, Collins has been playing her best tennis. She’s won two WTA tournaments this year, doubling her haul from the prior nine years. She willed her way deep into Wimbledon with gritty play and gutsy comebacks. But if you ask her whether the retirement decision somehow freed her to play better, well, she’s not a fan of that question.

“There’s been such a disregard for the hard work that I’ve put into the course of my career,” she said. “Things haven’t clicked for me previously, consistently, and things are clicking for me now. It’s been so frustrating in a sense because I feel like I have to justify my success. I’ve worked so hard since I was 7 years old for this. And I feel like when this question gets brought up, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, like you’re retiring. It must be so easy to have some success because it’s your last year.’ It doesn’t really work like that.”

Her yearlong swan song, coupled with her peaking play, presents a final chance for Collins to be a role model for fierce female players. Collins has long challenged the notion that a woman’s on-court emotion should be viewed as anything other than a drive to win.

“The thing that has been difficult for me to wrap my head around as a professional athlete and tennis player is why women have to justify their competitive spirit,” she said. “That’s been a common theme throughout my career, where I’ve had to justify why I am being competitive. Why am I yelling, ‘Come on!’? Why am I showing competitive spirit? When you are a junior and you’re working with different coaches and learning how to play tennis, a big theme should be competitive spirit.”

After winning one of her Wimbledon matches – where that competitive spirit was on full display – Collins told an interviewer she was just being authentic.

“I let my emotions out there and I wear my heart on my sleeve,” she said. “I’m someone that’s not afraid to be myself. I think as women we should really embrace that and support each other” as a burst of applause nearly drowned out her next words.

“We get framed as emotional and frustrated and this and that, and I just say, ‘Eff it. I’m going for it’ … and I am always going to bring the passion.”

Even bigger applause boomed across the court. And for the record, in a stadium where British royalty is often in attendance, Collins didn’t drop an f-bomb, just the first letter.

“Have you ever heard a more Danielle Collins-type interview?” a Wimbledon analyst asked.

“It was brilliant,” his co-host responded.

Collins plans to bring that passion to her Olympic matches, too, but she also wants to savor the whole experience.

“I’m really looking forward to going into the Olympic Village and collecting the different pins from various countries,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to meet a lot of athletes that I wouldn’t meet otherwise.

“I mean, that fact that we have so many Olympians from UVA is so cool. It doesn’t surprise me much, but I am a little biased.”