Danielle Collins defeats Elena Rybakina for Miami Open title, the biggest title of her career

American Danielle Collins has captured the biggest title of her career, defeating Elena Rybakina, 7-5, 6-3, to win the Miami Open.

During the trophy presentation, she saved an extra special thank you to the thousands of fans who cheered her on the entire way.

“To the fans, I’ve played a lot of tennis, and I’ve played a few finals, but nothing close to this,” Collins said to the crowd.

“To play in my home state, at a tournament I used to watch on TV as a kid—my dad said, ‘If you’re not playing in the tournament you’re not going,’ so I had to work really hard to get here. And to come out here and feel like I’m playing in front of thousands of my best friends, and everybody that was pushing me to get over this hurdle today, it just meant the world. I was getting very emotional, and I had to keep telling myself, ‘Leave those emotions in the locker room and wait until after the match!’

“It was just an incredible environment. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

After the Australian Open in January, Collins announced that this would be the final year of her professional tennis career, citing a desire to return to normal life away from all of the rigors of the tour.

Collins’ triumph in Miami was her first at the WTA 1000 level. It’s her third overall WTA title, having won back-to-back titles in the summer of 2021, first at the WTA 250 clay-court event in Palermo and then at the WTA 500 hard-court stop in San Jose.

Her most famous run came at the Australian Open in 2022, where she made her first Grand Slam final, falling to Ashleigh Barty.

Collins didn’t just win the title in Miami, she stormed to the title dropping just one set, her first set of the tournament, defeating countrywoman Bernarda Pera in the first round, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

She won her next six matches in straight sets without even going to a tie-break, including wins over five seeded players—Anastasia Potapova (No. 30), Sorana Cirstea (No. 19), Caroline Garcia (No. 23), Ekaterina Alexandrova (No. 14) and ultimately Rybakina (No. 4).

And there’s more.

Collins is just the second unseeded woman ever to win the Miami Open, after Kim Clijsters, who also won it unseeded in 2005.

At No. 53, she’s also the lowest-ranked woman ever to win the Miami Open, surpassing Clijsters’ ranking of No. 38 in 2005.

And she’s also just the sixth American woman ever to win the event, joining Martina Navratilova (1985), Chris Evert (1986), Venus Williams (1998, 1999 and 2001), Serena Williams (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015) and Sloane Stephens (2018).

Though both had to fight off break points along the way, Collins and Rybakina stayed on serve throughout the first 11 games of the match, but then Collins pounced, breaking Rybakina’s 5-6 service game to sneak out the opening set after 60 minutes.

She then jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second set, even bringing up two points to hold for 3-0, but Rybakina got the break back and eventually they were back on serve—but Collins pounced one last time a few games later, breaking for a 5-3 lead, then served it out.

Collins clinched the victory with a signature crosscourt backhand winner into the open court on her fourth match point.

Her win over No. 4-ranked Rybakina was her fifth career win over a Top 5 player, after Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open in 2019 (No. 2), Elina Svitolina at Brisbane in 2020 (No. 5), Barty at Adelaide in 2021 (No. 1) and Paula Badosa at San Diego in 2022 (No. 4).

Collins, a former No. 7 herself, will rise from No. 53 to just outside the Top 20 when the new WTA rankings come out on Monday.