Danielle Collins earns rankings boost and sends message to people who are offended by her fiery personality

Shahida Jacobs
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Danielle Collins celebrates
Danielle Collins of the USA celebrates blowing a kiss to the crowd

The Danielle Collins juggernaut rolled on at the Charleston Open as she won her 11th consecutive match and the result has given her another boost in the WTA Rankings.

The fiery American, a former world No 7 known for her fist pumps and shouts of “Come on!”, is projected to return to the top 20 of the rankings for the first time since January 2023 after reaching the semi-final of the WTA 500 event.

The unseeded Collins defeated 11th seed Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-4 as she followed up last week’s Miami Open title with a run to the last four of the clay-court event.

Collins surged 31 places to No 22 with her Miami title and now she is set to climb another three places to No 19.

Quite the effort for someone who is in the final year of her professional career as she had announced earlier this year that she is to retire after the 2024 season.

Collins’ renaissance has earned her a lot of respect from her peers, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t escaped criticism in the past – mostly from those off the court – for what some feel are overzealous celebrations and shouts during matches.

But Collins – or Danimal as her fans have dubbed her – had a message for her critics during an interview with Tennis Channel.

Asked if she gets enough respect, she replied: “I have so many close friendships with these women on tour and many of them see the way I compete on court and they understand because they are competitors, they know that’s what I do on court.

“But when I come off the court I am a good person and I am someone who is loyal to my friends, I am thoughtful and I think all of the girls on tour really respect that because they get it.

“But it is obviously the people outside tennis that can sometimes get offended by how I compete and what I do because it is not … I think we still live in a world where there are a lot of stereotypes and that is not really a political statement, that is just the way it is.

“For women, you are expected to behave a certain way and sometimes when you have a big personality and you are really competitive like I am and fiery, that can rub people the wrong way.

“I just say to those people ‘stay bothered’ ’cause I am me, this is how it is and I am not going to change for anybody.”

Asked how she accepted this version of herself, she said: “There were definitely times where I struggled. In today’s world with social media and all of the things we deal with, we get more voices coming at us.

Sometimes the negative people can be a bit louder than the positive people because they take more time out of the day to troll you, but you have to realise that what people say about other people says a lot about themselves and sometimes how we communicate with others is a direct reflection of how we feel inside.

“It has taken some work and obviously maturing to understand that, but I just try to keep that in perspective, there are a lot of people out there that have their own things that they are dealing with and sometimes not everyone is going to be happy with your success and they are not going to be happy when you are doing these ones [gestures fist pump] and getting fired up so you have to be understanding of that …

“You are going to have people that don’t support you, but you are going to have a lot of people that do support you and you have to find that balance.

“I have had such a strong fan base behind me my whole career and they have been ride or die. I have had the same fan base from when I graduated from college and I see those familiar faces throughout the year and it is just incredible.”

READ MORE: Danielle Collins reveals if she will reconsider retirement plans after Miami title run

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