Danielle Collins won the biggest title of her career after beating Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 in just over two hours of play. It is the first WTA 1000 trophy for the American, who announced in January that this would be her final season on Tour.
Collins, ranked 53rd in the world, fended off six break points in the opening set before her resilience led her break in the 12th game to end the set. In the second one, Collins started with a break, but lost her advantage immediately. However, Rybakina lost her serve again in the eighth game after wasting two more break points in the previous one, and despite having two more break points in the ninth game, Collins showed character to close out the match in her favour.
The American saved 10 of 11 break opportunities against the former Wimbledon champion. For Collins, this is the third overall title of her professional career after those in Palermo and San Jose, the last of which came nearly three years ago. She is also a former finalist at the 2022 Australian Open, when she lost to Ashley Barty. In addition to the trophy, Collins also collected a solid check of more than 1 million dollars.
Rybakina, for her part, was again stopped in the final in Florida after losing to Petra Kvitova last year. The Kazakh remains with two WTA 1000 titles and a career total of seven, with 11 lost finals. /BGNES
