Danielle Collins Will Play IGA Swiatek in Australian Open Semifinal

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Danielle Collins Will Play IGA Swiatek in Australian Open Semifinal

On Thursday, the 30th-ranked player in the world, Danielle Collins, smashed her way into the 2022 Australian Open final by defeating the seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek.

No. 27 seed Collins defeated World No. 9 Swiatek 6-4, 6-1 to get to her maiden Grand Slam final.

After reaching a career-high No. 23 in January 2019, the American tennis player is now assured of breaking into the Top 10 the following week. Since returning from endometriosis surgery in March, she has gone 36-10, winning her first two WTA titles in Palermo and San Jose.

Danielle Collins Will Play IGA Swiatek in Australian Open Semifinal

Danielle Collins Will Play

Collins: “It feels wonderful. It’s been such a journey and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s been so many years of hard work and hours at an early age on court. It’s incredible to be on this platform, especially with my health difficulties, I’m just so grateful. I couldn’t be happier.”

She continued, “You saw my ‘Plan A’ today, and I wanted to go out there and execute it as best I could; it was going extremely well today, so I just had to keep with it.”

From the first game on, Collins, now 28 years old, made it apparent that she intended to completely overpower Swiatek with first-strike tennis. Collins’s dedication to this goal remained unwavering throughout the entire match, and her excellent execution scarcely slowed down.

While Collins cruised over Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-1 to advance to her second consecutive Melbourne semi-final, former French Open winner Swiatek overcame a set deficit to defeat Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

The strong American, who reached the final four in 2019 as well, was brought back in the first set after a promising start but then went on to win the match by dominating play in the second set despite the sweltering weather.

Cornet’s loss ended a remarkable campaign in which he made the round of eight at a major for the first time in his 63rd attempt.

Swiatek, the 2020 Roland Garros champion, overcame a set and a break down to beat Kanepi in sweltering conditions, despite hitting 12 double faults.

The match was tied at 1-1 after the second set tiebreaker, with the Pole, who had committed 12 double faults, finally regaining her composure and raising her level.

Last Words

Swiatek was broken twice more in the third set but managed to break 115th-ranked Kanepi four times and win the match after three hours of play after Kanepi sent a backhand wide on her second match point.

Later on Wednesday, second-seeded Daniil Medvedev was scheduled to play 21-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was widely seen as one of the greatest threats to Medvedev’s pursuit of a second consecutive Grand Slam singles victory.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, seeded fourth, will play Jannik Sinner in the other men’s quarterfinal.

One of the men’s semifinals is between the winners, who will play on Friday, and Rafael Nadal and Matteo Berrettini, who have already qualified for Friday’s second semifinal.