Danielle Collins wins the Miami Open — her way

MIAMI GARDENS, Florida — The moment Danielle Collins let Elena Rybakina and 14,000 fans at Hard Rock Stadium and everyone else in tennis know what was going down on Saturday happened when she was a point away from taking the first set and facing maybe the most dangerous serve in the game.

Rybakina did what she usually does, using that trebuchet of a right arm to launch one of her missiles down the middle of the court. And that’s when Collins, one of the great grip and rip tennis talents, reared back and ripped a swing that took both her feet off the ground, cranking a ball that didn’t come back and taking a lead that she would keep on her way to a victory that may very well be the capstone of her tennis life. 

About an hour later, she was standing on a stage holding the big glass trophy for winning one of the sport’s big titles at the tournament she watched as a kid growing up on the other side of Florida. Collins was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over a Wimbledon champion who is one of the most feared players in the sport. And she managed it just in time, because here is probably the oddest detail about this magical two weeks a few hours drive away from the public courts where started out – come the end of the season, she’s out.    

Collins, who is 30, just eight years into her pro career and playing the best tennis of her life, swears she is calling it quits no matter what happens the rest of the year. 

Doesn’t matter that the 2022 Australian Open finalist, a two-time NCAA champion, and a player with a locker room reputation as one of the most dangerous in the game, might just be getting in her groove. Thanks for the memories, this one and whatever else happens over the next seven months. 

She’s done, worn out, tired of trying to compete at the highest level while managing endometriosis and rheumatoid arthritis and the chronic pain that both conditions can bring. Plus the loneliness of the road and the game itself. And she wants to start a family, something that doctors tell her it would be good to get going on sooner rather than later, given her medical history.  

Few take issue with any of this. If nothing else, Collins speaks the truth, like few others in the sport. Always has.  

Still, her plans have bewildered lots of people around the sport. As she proved on Saturday and over the past two weeks, when healthy and locked in, she’s flat-out better than most women. They know it, and so does she. 

Also, there is a quality that Collins brings to a tennis court, a fire and an energy and an ability to take thousands of people packed into a stadium anywhere in the world on a journey with her. Andy Murray does it. So does Rafael Nadal. Serena Williams did. Bianca Andreescu, the gifted Canadian who won the U.S. Open in 2019 at 19 years old but has battled injuries ever since, can do it, too. 

To watch these players and a handful of others is to ride shotgun with them. And what a ride it can be, especially on a day like…