Who will headline Indian Wells? On the American side, it's Danielle Collins

ZipRecruiter Player Resume: What's next for Danielle Collins?

Sofia Kenin, Australian Open champion just two years ago, is currently ranked 95th on the WTA tour. Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, is currently ranked 247th. If either American is to compete in this year’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, they’ll need to do so as an alternate or as a wild card.

Jarring as those sentences may be, this one may be just as surprising to casual tennis fans: Danielle Collins is the top-ranked American on the WTA tour.

But to those who have been following the 28-year-old’s upward path over the past five seasons, the distinction may not be a shock at all—rather, it may be long overdue.

A two-time NCAA singles champion from the University of Virginia, Collins took her time to settle into the pro game, but after getting a taste of success, she’s only grown hungrier. She finished the 2018 season 36th on tour, which put her just outside the ranks of seeded players at the following year’s Australian Open. Didn’t matter. Collins ousted three seeds in Melbourne, including No. 2 Angelique Kerber, en route to her first Grand Slam semifinal.

“Maybe some people thought I was a one-hit wonder, it was a fluke,” Collins said afterward. “Clearly none of this has been a fluke.”

Collins’ confidence, fitness and skill have helped sustain a a five-year run inside the Top 50. But that’s just her floor; Collins is currently No. 11, just one position off her career high. The Floridian amassed those ranking points with back-to-back titles last season—on different continents and surfaces—in Palermo and San Jose, along with a supreme showing at this year’s Australian Open. Comfortable on the hard courts Down Under, Collins returned to the tournament’s semifinal stage, but this time went a step further after routing seventh-seed Iga Swiatek, 6-4, 6-1.

Her 6-3, 7-6 (2) loss to home favorite and world No. 1 Ash Barty in the final should take nothing away from what Collins accomplished in Australia, and around the world. The result ensured Collins a spot in the Top 10—and a different title: top-ranked American woman.

“I've gotten so much support from other players especially, which has been so nice and it's something that I love so much about our sport is the camaraderie a lot of us share in the locker room and the friendships,” Collins said after her runner-up finish. “I really think that for an individual sport and being as competitive as we all are, it's amazing some of the friendships that we share.”

Collins will continue her quest for hard-court hardware in Doha and Dubai. But a bigger tournament on the horizon, and one in which Collins may truly feel the domestic honor she’s earned, comes at Indian Wells. Barty will be there, along with the rest of the tour’s Top 5: Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova, Karolina Pliskova and Paula Badosa. Purely in terms of rankings, these are the players Collins will be looking up at.

But every American will be looking up at Collins, including Amanda Anisimova and Jessica Pegula—who had outstanding Australian Opens of their own—and 17-year-old Coco Gauff. Fellow teenagers Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, who captured American hearts at the US Open, will return stateside for this combined WTA/ATP 1000 event. (Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, who contested the men’s Australian Open final, will headline the ATP side; Novak Djokovic will also participate. Valid proof of vaccination is required to attend the tournament.)

Collins has yet to advance beyond the round of 16 at Indian Wells, last doing so in 2018. But it’s not as if she’s troubled by the playing surface, and in a relatively open field—85th-ranked Naomi Osaka is currently an alternate—another breakthrough could be in the offing. Collins has shown she can win in California multiple times in the pros, in San Jose and in Newport Beach. The next logical step is Indian Wells.