In a recent interview, Danielle Collins discussed the plans and tactics that she utilized in order to achieve victory over Elena Rybakina in the final of the 2024 Miami Open.

Unseeded Collins defeated Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 to take the Miami Open title. Collins won her first WTA 1000 championship, her third career WTA singles victory, and her first title since 2021. This was Collins’ first title win since 2021.

With the triumph, Danielle Collins became the sixth American woman to claim the Miami Open championship, joining the likes of Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Sloane Stephens.

During the post-match interview with Prakash Amritraj on Tennis Channel, Collins lauded Elena Rybakina’s skills on the court, characterizing her as a tough opponent to break while also labeling the World No. 4 a “monster” on the court.

“I mean, it’s very tough. Elena [Rybakina] is not an easy person to break. Those are some massive serves coming in. She is a monster out there and it’s like that for everybody. And I had to be incredibly gentle with myself. I have to assign myself targets. I had to have a plan,” Collins remarked (at 2:57).

Collins also recognized that Rybakina pushed her to her limitations, prompting her to strategize and execute her shots at a “high level” to ultimately secure the title

“Every time I came up to that baseline, I can definitely say I showed up every single point, even the ones when she painted the lines and was going for it. I was really thinking about a lot tactically and technically, and it required me to return at a high level, and I think that’s why I returned so well,” she added.
Expand Tweet Danielle Collins: “Elena Rybakina was hitting some incredible shots, she was backing me up”
Miami Open Presented by Itau 2024 – Day 15

In the aforementioned interview, Danielle Collins claimed that she had to keep strong attention to return Elena Rybakina’s serves.

She underlined that facing Rybakina demanded a level of concentration that she had not previously experienced at the Miami 1000 tournament.

“I mean Elena’s got a pretty huge game and I think it was all about serving and returning those first. Those early strokes are the most critical in any match, but especially when you’re playing against a big server and someone with tremendous returns. So I had to be really on it and it required an amount of focus that I have not been challenged to at this level at this tournament,” Collins stated (at 2:03).

Collins acknowledged that it was hard and not an easy win playing against Elena Rybakina, a player who had several great victories on the WTA Tour.

“Elena was hitting some great shots. She was backing me up. I had to do a good job of absorbing, getting down low, going to the ball, and also attempting to get a read on the serve as much as I could. But it’s tricky. I mean, she’s number three in the world, Wimbledon champion. She’s had a lot of accomplishments and there’s a reason for that. She is not an easy person to read with her shots, and it’s hard to foresee where she’s going to go,” she continued.