Danielle Collins feeling ‘really lucky and proud’ after marathon win over Simona Halep in Montreal

WTA Tour
Danielle Collins fist pump after victory

Danielle Collins stretched her unbeaten streak on the WTA Tour to 12 matches with a battling win over the fit-again Simona Halep at the Canadian Open.

Fresh from adding the Silicon Valley Classic title to the Palermo Open trophy she won in July, Collins followed up a three-set opening round win over Jill Teichmann by again going the distance.

Her win over two-time champion Halep, who was playing in her first match in three months due to injury, was just five minutes shy of three hours and she booked her place in the quarter-final with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.

Halep broke in games five and seven of the first set, but both players struggled with their serves in the second set with seven breaks as Collins just edged it 4-3 to take the match to a decider.

There were four consecutive breaks midway through the third set before the Americans got the crucial breakthrough in game 10, sealing the match on her fifth match point.

“Honestly, I just feel really lucky,” Collins told WTAtennis.com. “Dealing with the physical stuff today after playing a lot of matches, it wasn’t easy. It definitely got the best of me physically and emotionally. So just being able to hang in there, just really proud to be able to pull through.”

Up next is fellow American Jessica Pegula, who defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In the same section, 13th seed Ons Jabeur earned a third-round clash against defending champion Bianca Andreescu after the Tunisian claimed a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russian Daria Kasatkina.

Jabeur secured the important break in game eight of the deciding set.

Danielle Collins Ons Jabeur Simona Halep

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