Free from pain, Aus Open finalist "living her best life"

In the Australian summer of last year, Danielle Collins collapsed on court.

PREMIUM

During the third set of her Phillip Island Trophy semi-final against Daria Kasatkina in Melbourne in February, she was felled by severe cramps in her lower pelvis and abdominal muscles. She got up to fight, but her serve and movement heavily hindered, lost the set 6-1 after winning the second.

In the next tournament in Adelaide the following week, the American retired from her quarter-final against Iga Swiatek with chronic back pain. She went back home and got scans done. But her orthopedic doctor found nothing in the MRI that could explain the pain. The next day, Collins's periods began.

“I was in terrible agony. I went into his (doctor's) office crying and I said, 'I can't do one more day like this',” Collins told WTA.

They consulted a gynecologist, and a few days later, Collins underwent an emergency surgery for endometriosis, a medical condition where tissue similar to the lining of a uterus grows outside of it, causing extreme pain especially during the menstrual cycle.

Nine months later, playing her first tournament of the 2022 Australian summer, Collins has stormed into the Australian Open final, where the 28-year-old will take on local hero Ash Barty on Saturday for a maiden Grand Slam title.

“It is incredible to be on this stage, especially after all the health challenges,” Collins said on court after dismantling Swiatek in the semi-final.

Collins has been crushing opponents over the last two weeks with her brutal, power-packed baseline game on the same Melbourne courts where she experienced "stabbing pain throughout my spine" a year ago.

Overwhelming pain

For much of the first half of last year, Collins would be in some of the worst pain she has ever dealt with around her menstrual cycle. The agony would spread to different parts of her body, all the way from the back down to the feet. Often—as she revealed in an interview to WTA last August—Collins would throw up, be down with fever, or remain in the bathroom for hours. She spent more and more time in bed.

A diagnosis for endometriosis is tricky—Collins had always been told by doctors that painful periods were “normal”.

“It just finally got to the point where I couldn't deal with it any longer, physically or mentally,” Collins said in a press conference after her quarter-final win at the Australian Open. “When you’re dealing with that type of physical pain multiple weeks out of a month, you’re not really putting yourself in a position to be able to perform consistently and be at your best—whether as an athlete or as a person.”

In early April last year, after finally receiving a diagnosis, Collins had a cyst almost "the size of a tennis ball" removed from her ovary. She took seven weeks to recover, the first of which was spent mostly bedridden before she gradually started exercising to strengthen her muscles around the area. She made a comeback at the French Open in late May, losing to Serena Williams in the Round of 32. "I actually tore my ab again in one of the spots where I had the surgery," she told WTA.

Finally, on the road back

After more forced time off, the benefits of the surgery began to show on court as well. Collins won back-to-back WTA titles in Palermo and San Jose (beating Kasatkina in the final) in July and August, which brought her inside the top-30 of the world rankings again. Collins felt she passed the stage of playing with the fear of persistent pain in Palermo, where she was able to have a full swing at the ball without experiencing any discomfort in her stomach. “Once I was able to get the proper diagnosis and the surgery, I feel like it's helped me so much; not just from a physical standpoint but from a mental standpoint,” she said in Melbourne.

Collins also believes the treatment has ensured more consistency with her physical workouts and strength and conditioning drills, without feeling the need to time it as per her menstrual cycle. “Before my surgery and before I was on the proper medication, I was always having to adjust my training around my cycle, because of how painful my periods were,” she added. “And now… I’m able to train more consistently.”

The confidence in her body and mind returning, the 2019 Australian Open semi-finalist turned up at Melbourne Park this season red hot. Inflicting maximum damage with pace and aggression behind her shots, the 27th seed beat Elise Mertens, seeded 19th, in the fourth round, the veteran Alize Cornet in the quarter-finals and blew away 2020 French Open champion Swiatek in the semis. Irrespective of the final outcome, Collins will crack into the top-10 rankings for the first time next week.

“I certainly feel a lot freer,” Collins said of the change post her endometriosis surgery. “Living my best life.”

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