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Danielle Collins wasn’t planning on being Down Under this month but the reversal of her retirement plans has her back at the Australian Open where she has enjoyed some big success.

Collins, the 2022 Australian Open finalist, announced nearly 12 months that she would retire after the 2024 season, but changed her mind in mid-October due to multiple reasons.

It didn’t hurt that Collins enjoyed a banner 2024 season that included victories in Miami and Charleston, S.C., during a 15-match winning streak. She also made the U.S. Olympic team for the first time and broke into the Top 10 in the rankings for the second year in her career.

Speaking at Melbourne Park on Saturday, the 31-year-old Collins acknowledged that personal challenges — including her public battle with endometriosis representing a serious hardship to starting a family — led to her decision to return.

“I was looking forward to trying to start a family right away and to start a new chapter,” Collins, ranked 11th in the world, told reporters. “But sometimes these things get thrown at you, different curveballs. Now it’s just kind of like, well, I can enjoy some more time on tour, which is a bonus.

“It’s been nice being back on tour and having, you know, the time to be around my friends on tour and having that support system.”

Collins has been dealing with endometriosis, a disease where the issues that line the inside of the uterus grow outside of it and cause a variety of issues. One is that it makes it harder for a woman to get pregnant.

So Collins, who also deals with rheumatoid arthritis, changed her mind when she found out it would take longer for doctors to provide her with answers. She has earned over $9 million in career and is a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist — the other coming in the 2019 Australian Open — but hasn’t won a Grand Slam title.

The player with the powerful backhanded shot said her decision in play in 2025 has nothing to do with any unfinished business.

“It was a tough decision. I could talk more about it, but I want to be here for two weeks focused on competing hard,” Collins said. “I admit that I come from a period where I’ve cried every day, I was scared, it hasn’t been fun. The physical challenges ahead of me are complex, my medical team will have to figure out the best plan.”

Collins is seeded 10th for the Australian Open and will face Ukraine qualifier Daria Snigur in the first round on Monday.

She lost to Ash Barty in the 2022 Australian Open in what turned out to be Barty’s final match. Collins reached the final with an epic beatdown of Poland’s Iga Swiatek in the semis. Later that year, Collins earned her career-best No. 7 ranking.

The Floridian’s run to the 2019 Aussie semis was her breakthrough tourney. Collins was the NCAA singles national champion in 2014 and 2016 for Virginia but hadn’t experienced much professional success until that dash through the bracket.

Now she’s been considered among the top American players for most of this decade and being back on tour gives her comfort while she deals with her personal challenges.

“I have been doing this for seven, eight years. My closest friendships are a lot of the women on tour, a lot of the people on tour,” Collins said. “You think about that lifestyle change when you’re going through something that’s so challenging emotionally, and then to not have that support system, that’s … yeah, it’s a lot. So I’m glad that I can keep doing this for a little bit longer.”

–Field Level Media