From Miami, Vanni Gibertini
D. Collins d. [4] E. Rybakina 7-5 6-3
For the second year in a row, Elena Rybakina cannot complete her quest for the Miami Open trophy, for the second year in a row she has lost the final to a player that, on paper, was ranked much lower than her, even if both Petra Kvitova in 2023 and Danielle Collins this year have had a past as Top 10 players.
The crown of Miami Open champion has gone to the soon-to-be retiree Danielle Collins, ranked n. 53 at the beginning of the tournament, who managed to plow through the field in impressive fashion and after losing the first set to lucky loser Bernarda Pera, she did not concede more than three games per set to all her opponents until the final.
On Saturday afternoon she took to the Hard Rock Stadium Court in Miami Gardens ready to play her usual style of aggressive tennis and low percentage shots attacking her opponent right from the return of serve. Rybakina got to the final match at the Miami Open surviving through four very long matches lasting well over two hours, and this was on top of an already stuttering form due to the illness that had forced her retirement in Indian Wells a couple of weeks before.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion was able to keep herself in the match for over two hours, but she notably lost all the games that went on to be marathon games: at 3-3 on both the first and the second set, Collins was able to hold serve after fighting off four and three break points respectively. And during the last game of the match, once again Rybakina could not convert on two chances to level the score at 5-5 and keep fighting on for a possible comeback.
Three games of fourteen points each that showed how Rybakina’s tank was almost empty, especially in the second set, while Colling still had a lot of gas to burn. In fact, while in the first set the four break points were valiantly erased by Collins with winning shots, most of the five break points Rybakina had in the second set were wasted away by an unforced error. The Kazakhstani player was brilliant when she showcased five winning backhands to win the third game of the third set, after Collins had broken her twice in a row and seemed ready to race to the end with a commanding 7-5, 2-0 lead.
But Rybakina levelled the score at 2-2 and kept her hopes alive. However, in the catfight at the end of the second set, with the match clock approaching the two-hour mark, albeit in the pleasant 26 degrees of a beautiful spring afternoon in Miami, Elena could not limit her unforced errors (eight in the last three games) and eventually had to capitulate.
With this win, Danielle Collins returns to the Top 30 in the WTA ranking at no. 22, and all this in her last year of tour. In fact, she has confirmed that she will conclude her professional career at the end of this season because she is 30 years old and wants to become a mother. This would be quite challenging for her since she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune degenerative disease that reduces her chances of conceiving naturally, therefore she has decided she wants to start trying while she is still young.
