Danielle Collins speaks out about ‘draining’ retirement questions

Danielle Collins has admitted struggling with “draining” questions around her retirement from tennis, with the US No 3 set to step away from tennis at the end of 2024.

Former Australian Open finalist Collins announced in Melbourne this year that this would be her final year on tour, and has gone on to play the best tennis of her career.

She won back-to-back titles in Miami and Charleston this spring and returned to the top 10 after reaching the Strasbourg final just before the French Open, where she fell in round two .

The world No 10 has spoken repeatedly about her retirement plans, bravely sharing her endometriosis diagnosis and her desire to start a family post-tennis.

But despite making her intentions clear on multiple occasions, many have continued to question whether she will step away from the sport after a career-best season to date.

In an Instagram post, Collins revealed that she was “very proud” of her recent success, which helped seal her a spot at the Olympic Games.

However, she admitted that it had been “really challenging” to deal with ongoing questions about her future.

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She wrote: “ After 6 months of playing a tournament almost every week, I can finally take some time to relax and recover. In the beginning of the season it was a goal of mine to qualify for the Olympics.

“ It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to make it happen. I am very proud of my success over the last six months.

“ With all of the attention around my retirement at the end of the year, the last couple weeks have been really challenging for me. I have found myself playing some of my best tennis but I’ve also found myself really dreading going into work and crying daily.

“ The conversations with media around explaining my health challenges, being asked over and over again to justify my success, and constantly being questioned about retiring and wanting to start a family have been really draining.

“ It’s definitely exacerbated my feelings of being homesick, and with the craziness around rain delays and unfortunate match scheduling I have not had much time to get to do the activities I enjoy away from the courts.

“My sleep schedule had been pretty erratic due to some matches that were finishing up really late at night, so that definitely didn’t help.”

With the grass court season looming, the US star will be one to watch, with her aggressive game style one that should thrive on the surface.

And she wrote that she would be “refreshed and recharged” for the grass swing, but admitted that she was looking forward to some downtime with her friends and family – and, of course, her dog Quincy.

She added: “ I’m so grateful for the support from my incredible boyfriend, Bryan, close friends, and also some really incredible fans over the past few weeks.

“ The uplifting energy and encouragement means so much to me. I realize that there are much more important issues going on in the world right now. I just wanted to share all of this because success is not linear and no one is immune to having bad days.

“ I I will be pampering myself with some self care over the next few days. I’m feeling really happy to finally get to enjoy some of my favorite activities and be reunited with Mr. Q.

“ I will be back feeling refreshed and recharged for grass court season.”