Danielle Collins est de retour sur le devant de la scène. Montée jusqu'à la 7e place mondiale en 2022, l'Américaine pointe actuellement au-delà du Top 50. Mais plus pour longtemps. Brillante au WTA 1000 de Miami, la joueuse de 30 ans s'est qualifiée ce mercredi pour le dernier carré en éliminant la n°1 Française Caroline Garcia en deux manches, 6-3, 6-2. Sa deuxième demie en WTA 1000. La première était également à Miami, il y a six ans, en 2018. En pleine confiance, Collins n'a pas concédé la moindre balle de break. Sa puissance fait des ravages et pourrait bien l'emmener jusqu'au titre. Il faudra déjà battre Jessica Pegula ou Ekaterina Alexandrova au prochain tour.
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SportTranscription
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Yeah, I've been getting off to a good start in the matches,
00:07 playing aggressive game style.
00:10 Yeah, and I think physically have played really well.
00:16 And yeah, I'm not really sure.
00:22 [LAUGHS]
00:31 Danielle, congrats.
00:33 When you say you're not really sure,
00:34 is it like you're stumped as to how this has happened,
00:37 or are you just stumped as to how to articulate
00:40 how it's happened?
00:41 Well, I think a little bit of both, right?
00:43 I mean, I'm playing well.
00:45 And so I feel like anything--
00:49 I don't want to be tooting my own horn here.
00:52 And I want to be able to articulate
00:56 some thoughts on the match.
00:58 I'm curious to hear what you guys have to ask.
01:01 [LAUGHS]
01:06 How would you compare how you're playing now
01:10 to other times when you've played well in your career?
01:16 Is there a certain feeling you have at this moment?
01:19 And is it different, better, worse than other times
01:24 when you got on rolls?
01:27 Yeah, I mean, I think in a lot of these sports psychology
01:30 books and things that they talk about, like high-level sports,
01:34 and they talk about being in the zone
01:36 and almost feeling like you're hitting beach balls,
01:39 I think it can feel like that at times.
01:42 And that's a good thing.
01:44 And in other times that I've played well
01:49 and have had deep runs in tournaments,
01:51 it's been like that.
01:52 And then in other times, there's days
01:55 it's like going out to the golf range and having a bad day,
01:58 and you're missing shots.
02:00 But right now, I'm timing the ball really well.
02:03 And I think I've made some physical adjustments, too,
02:06 that's kind of helped me be able to kind of control my shots
02:10 more and hit them with more accuracy and precision.
02:14 I've been working on that for a while.
02:15 And it's hard to sometimes make those types of changes,
02:20 not big changes, but small changes.
02:24 And so I think that that's kind of just
02:25 helped me get a little bit more consistent in these points
02:29 and bring it in the court a little more.
02:32 Is it something specific, these little changes,
02:38 is it something you thought of, someone else
02:40 thought of it?
02:41 And is it, like you said, it's at this stage of your career
02:44 when you do have to make a change like that, how hard is
02:46 it?
02:46 The other thing I wanted to ask you is about your dog.
02:49 You mentioned that you have your dog with you
02:51 when you're close to home, that it feels more--
02:54 it's just more comfortable maybe to be in Florida,
02:57 close to home.
02:57 You can bring your doggy along.
02:59 What's the dog's name?
03:00 What kind of dog is it?
03:01 Thank you.
03:02 Yeah, so two different questions.
03:06 So going back to the first part of that,
03:11 I don't want to give too many of my secrets away, right?
03:14 Yeah, but I can give a little bit of insight.
03:17 I feel like one of the things that I've
03:21 been working on over the course of my career
03:24 is having good body control.
03:28 I think in our sport, and it being a rotational sport,
03:31 the tendency to rotate and to use a lot of power and force.
03:36 Well, I'm still doing that.
03:37 I think I've improved a lot of my core strength.
03:42 And so that's helped me be able to stay a little bit more
03:47 still.
03:48 So I think that's helping.
03:51 And that is something I think a lot of coaches
03:54 that I've worked with over the years and people in general,
03:59 even at a basic level, if you're taking tennis lessons,
04:01 they tell you to do.
04:02 And so sometimes it's the really simple things
04:04 that you have to remind yourself of.
04:06 I hear coaches on court with really high level players
04:09 here telling their players to stay still and keep
04:11 their body under control.
04:13 And I hear that at the country club
04:16 when you're playing next to a 4.5 player
04:18 and they're working on their forehand.
04:20 So yeah, I've been working on that.
04:23 I've gotten that idea.
04:25 I've been in tennis for a while.
04:27 So yeah.
04:30 And the second part, Quincy is my little dog.
04:34 He is very adorable.
04:36 He is a sophisticated gentleman.
04:38 And I call him Mr. Q. He has been here with me
04:45 during the entire event.
04:46 He's at daycare right now.
04:48 He is a very spoiled gentleman with a very big personality.
04:54 I'm sure some of you have probably
04:56 seen him running around here at some point.
04:59 But he doesn't come with on the match days
05:02 because he's my Velcro dog.
05:04 And he doesn't like leaving my side.
05:07 He has a lot of anxiety when, even if he was sitting there
05:13 and I'm here, he doesn't want the distance.
05:15 So yeah.
05:18 So he's my little baby.
05:20 He's lived a very spoiled life.
05:25 I like to cook.
05:26 Quincy gets to partake in some pretty fabulous meals.
05:29 What kind of dog is Quincy?
05:34 Quincy's a mix.
05:35 Yeah.
05:36 He's cute.
05:36 I think he's mostly poodle.
05:38 So yeah.
05:39 He's a cutie.
05:41 I'm sure people can check him out on my Instagram.
05:44 I saw on television you were saying
05:49 that these kind of positive results
05:52 don't really make you change your plans for the future
05:55 in terms of leaving the sport at the end of the year.
05:59 But has it actually, in a way, has it helped you?
06:02 Do you think psychologically, do you play with more freedom
06:05 when you don't have the stress of looking
06:08 beyond the horizon as much?
06:10 Well, I mean, I guess it just depends, right?
06:13 You can think about it in many different ways.
06:16 I don't really think about it that much, to be honest.
06:19 I mean, I feel like as a professional athlete,
06:21 you're so consumed in your day to day and your routines,
06:24 getting ready, preparing, recovering,
06:26 maintaining your strength.
06:27 All of the things that go into our day to day
06:30 can be very consuming.
06:31 And so I don't really have a lot of time, quite honestly,
06:33 to be like, well, I'm retiring at the end of the year.
06:36 So yeah, I think I don't have as much pressure on me
06:39 because I've only got a few more tournaments left.
06:43 Or I could sit there and be like, well, I've
06:45 only got a few tournaments left.
06:47 And if they don't do this now, what the heck am I doing?
06:50 So you can have different ways of thinking about it.
06:53 But I just don't really feel like I have the time
06:55 to kind of sit and ponder and get too deep into the thoughts.
06:59 Because honestly, yeah, the day to day,
07:03 like with us as athletes, is a lot.
07:06 I feel like the fans don't get to see that as much.
07:10 It's more than a 9 to 5 job because it's just
07:12 around the clock.
07:13 And so honestly, I'm just so consumed
07:16 with doing all the things I need to do
07:18 to get prepared for the next day.
07:19 And so yeah, I mean, I think I feel pretty relaxed.
07:25 That could be due to a number of things.
07:27 I've got a new hobby.
07:29 I'm playing some more golf, running more, pilates,
07:34 all of these different things.
07:35 So my dog's here.
07:37 I'm feeling relaxed because I get to be with him at night.
07:40 I don't know.
07:42 Yeah.
07:44 But it's a good question.
07:45 I'm still trying to figure it out too.
07:48 [LAUGHTER]
07:49 Danielle, in January, the loss to Iga, from the outside,
07:54 it would have been very easy for us, for me--
07:56 I guess I'll speak for me-- to assume, wow,
07:59 it's going to take her a while to get over that.
08:01 She was so close, things like that.
08:03 But you continued to play so well, especially
08:05 in the Middle East, and bounced back well.
08:06 And I'm curious, given the circumstances of everything,
08:10 why do you think that was that it didn't sink you in a way
08:13 that it could have sunk any player?
08:16 Well, I do think I am a professional athlete.
08:20 And I think professional athletes
08:22 have a different mindset between success and failures.
08:27 And the reality is that match was very close.
08:31 I had some opportunities.
08:32 Iga played extremely well.
08:34 I didn't do a whole lot wrong.
08:35 Iga played at a high level.
08:37 And the reality is that she's number one in the world.
08:40 She has a whole list of accomplishments.
08:44 And I was underdog that match.
08:45 I was not supposed to win that match.
08:47 And I think it would be worse if I lost to someone who was
08:54 ranked outside of the top 200.
08:56 It would be worse if I lost to O and L.
08:59 It would be worse if I would have rolled my ankle.
09:02 And so at the end of the day, yeah, the match was close.
09:05 But it's really-- we have tournaments every single week.
09:08 And I don't think anyone's defined by one match or one
09:12 loss.
09:13 And I don't think anyone's--
09:15 it's certainly something that I haven't
09:17 been hanging my head up over.
09:18 I think people that aren't as involved in professional sports
09:25 and maybe fans probably think, ouch, that really hurts.
09:29 But we're very resilient.
09:31 All of us are.
09:32 And I think our ability to recover quickly
09:37 from when things don't go our way,
09:38 whether it's a tough couple of points on court,
09:41 whether it's a tough match, whether it's injuries,
09:43 whether it's losing a loved one, whether it's--
09:46 we're very resilient people.
09:47 And I think that's the biggest difference,
09:50 is that for professional athletes,
09:52 we have a totally different mindset with how we
09:55 deal with success and failures.
09:57 The last two.
09:59 I want to ask back to the question that Simon had asked.
10:02 What if you just have a great year right now?
10:05 You're on this role right now.
10:07 If you just have tremendous results,
10:09 is the decision to retire, is that a hard decision?
10:11 Or is that a soft decision that could maybe change based
10:14 on how you do this year?
10:16 I find it so interesting, because I kind of
10:18 felt like when I was announcing my retirement,
10:22 everyone's been so congratulating me
10:24 and so excited for me.
10:25 But then on the other hand, I feel
10:27 like I've had to justify my decision a lot.
10:29 And I feel like if I was a guy, I probably
10:32 wouldn't have to justify it that much.
10:35 And it's really-- that part really--
10:37 If you're playing really well, or you're a guy or a girl,
10:39 if any guy is playing at the top of his game
10:41 and rolling through tournaments the way you are,
10:43 you would think, I don't know, maybe there's more in me.
10:46 Maybe I should stay.
10:47 I don't know.
10:48 I don't know.
10:48 It's a gender thing.
10:49 No, but I mean, I think it's really interesting how I've--
10:53 in a lot of different situations,
10:56 I've had to kind of justify the reasons behind retirement.
10:59 I'm living with a chronic inflammatory disease that
11:02 affects your ability to get pregnant.
11:05 And so that's a deeply personal situation.
11:08 And I've kind of explained that from time to time.
11:10 And yeah, I think it's a good question.
11:14 But I think at the end of the day, my choice--
11:21 this is my personal choice.
11:22 And this is so much more to do than just tennis and my career.
11:29 And I'm enjoying my career.
11:30 I'm having a lot of fun.
11:31 I love coming out here and competing.
11:34 But at the end of the day, this is a really big--
11:37 decision.
11:38 And yeah, I think that that should
11:42 be pretty understandable.
11:44 Yeah.
11:44 That thing you said before about mindset
11:52 and being resilient and things like that,
11:54 did it take you a while to learn that?
11:56 Or did you always have that from the moment
12:00 you started on the tour?
12:01 And what was the process like of adopting that?
12:05 Yeah, I think as we go from being young juniors
12:12 and learning how to play tennis and then competing, right?
12:16 And at a young age in junior tennis,
12:19 you play a lot of tournaments.
12:21 And a lot of those weeks, you're not always winning.
12:24 You have sometimes more tournaments
12:28 you're losing in than winning.
12:30 And then you go to college, and you play for a team.
12:32 You play for something bigger than yourself.
12:35 And I think as you--
12:37 through each different stage, you're
12:40 trying to evolve mentally, right?
12:42 Like, you're trying to make improvements in your game
12:44 physically.
12:45 You're trying to evolve tactically.
12:50 You're trying to expand your skill set.
12:52 But the mental part's one of the most important things.
12:55 And I do think that the evolution of that for me
12:59 has been something that I've focused on,
13:01 just like pretty much every other player on tour.
13:05 I don't think that when you start your career,
13:07 you always handle wins and losses in a way that
13:13 is super healthy.
13:14 I think it can take some type of--
13:19 it takes a concentrated effort.
13:21 It takes reframing how we talk about wins and losses,
13:27 how we sit down and talk about the matches
13:30 and draw on the positives and the negatives or the things
13:34 that we can improve on.
13:35 So it has been something I've spent a lot of time working on.
13:38 And I think with me, I definitely
13:42 have that kind of perfectionist mentality.
13:46 And I'm very hyper-focused when I'm out on court.
13:49 And so a lot of times, it's present, present, present,
13:54 like being in that.
13:55 But then sometimes when you have a hard loss,
13:58 it can be really challenging.
13:59 And you can feel kind of down in the dumps for a few weeks.
14:02 So that has been something that I've had to work on,
14:05 I think, just like most of the players on tour.
14:08 Because it's not easy.
14:09 This is an individual sport, too.
14:11 You don't have the camaraderie of being on the team
14:14 and having people to kind of pick you up and lift
14:19 your spirits when you're down in the dumps.
14:22 So I have had to spend a lot of time working on that.
14:25 And I give a lot of credit to the different sports
14:27 psychologists that I've worked with,
14:29 because I feel like they've been able to help train my mind
14:35 to have a healthy outlook on wins and losses
14:38 and that kind of thing.
14:42 I could just ask, looking ahead, obviously, you
14:45 could play Jess in a all kind of Floridian final here,
14:50 or semifinal in Miami.
14:51 Or you could play Alexandra.
14:53 Can you talk, first of all, just about what
14:55 it would be like to play Jess for one of the biggest
14:58 finals in your career?
14:59 And then, obviously, Alexandra, who's
15:01 been a wrecking ball so far.
15:03 Yeah, Jess and I have known each other for a long time,
15:06 both from Florida, and have had some really great battles.
15:11 I've played Jess here, I think, once before.
15:15 And then, obviously, many times outside of this event.
15:20 Been teammates.
15:21 We have a lot of fun together.
15:23 So yeah, it'll be a great battle.
15:26 And against Alexandra Ova, she has
15:30 had an incredible run and an incredible couple of months.
15:34 It's been great to see how her game has evolved over the years
15:38 and the way that she's playing has been really exciting.
15:41 So I mean, no matter who I play, it's going to be a battle.
15:44 And yeah, I just look forward to getting out there and playing
15:48 in another semifinal.
15:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]