Danielle Collins extends winning streak to 15 in a row with victory over Cristian in Madrid

Danielle Collins has extended her winning streak to 15 matches in a row with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Romania's Jaqueline Cristian in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday.

She’s now battled back from a set down to win both of her first two matches at the WTA 1000 event, having come back from 6-4, 3-1 down to defeat Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic two nights ago, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8). Danilovic even served for that one at 5-4 in the third.

Collins wasn't in as much trouble against Cristian as she was against Danilovic—after dropping the first set, she stayed even with the Romanian until 4-all in the second set. She then won eight of the next nine games to completely run away with the match.

She sealed the two-hour, one-minute victory with an ace.

Collins’ winning streak began with back-to-back titles on the hard courts of Miami (7-0) and the green clay of Charleston (6-0), and she’s now added two more wins to her run on the red clay of Madrid.

Up next for the No. 13-seeded Collins will be No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated American teenager Robin Montgomery in her third-round match, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4. Montgomery had taken out the No. 26 seed, Katie Boulter, in the second round.

Collins has beaten three Top 10 players in her winning streak—Elena Rybakina, Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari—but the No. 2-ranked Sabalenka will be the highest-ranked player she’s had to face since her run began, with the previous three being No. 4, No. 6 and No. 7.

There’s another mountain to climb for the American, as Sabalenka has won all four of their previous meetings, at the US Open in 2018 (6-0, 4-6, 6-4), Wuhan in 2019 (6-1, 6-0), the US Open again in 2021 (6-3, 6-3) and the US Open again in 2022 (3-6, 6-3, 6-2).

The Sabalenka-Collins clash is second on Monday’s night session.