TENNIS
When is Danielle Collins playing her next game at the Italian Open? Date, time, opponent
In-form Collins is chasing a place in the final of the Italian Open women’s singles, having beaten former world number one Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals.
After making relatively light work of former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the Italian Open women’s singles tournament on Monday, the US’s Danielle Collins will face Aryna Sabalenka for a place in the final.
Collins booked her semi-final spot with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Azarenka - a victory that saw the No. 13 seed extend her run of stellar form to 19 wins in her past 20 matches. The 30-year-old, who in January said she plans to retire at the end of the season, is chasing her third tournament win of the year, following triumphs at the Miami Open and the Charleston Open.
No. 2 seed Sabalenka also reached the last four in straight sets on Wednesday, beating Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-4 at Rome’s Foro Italico. The semi-finals is her previous best in the tournament, which she achieved in 2022.
Collins: “You have to be happy for yourself”
Despite her impending retirement, Collins has never been in a better place on the court during her career. “It’s been nice to have a stretch where I’ve really been kind of climbing, because, it’s not always like that. You have to be really happy for yourself in these moments because it doesn’t always work out that way.”
Sabalenka, meanwhile, was delighted to have found something like her best form in the quarter-finals: “I would definitely say that it was the best performance of the tournament. I’m super happy that I was able to play without pain today and hopefully with every day I will feel better and better, and I will recover as good as I can for the next match.”
Sabalenka vs Collins: head to head
Sabalenka and Collins have met on five previous occasions on the WTA Tour, with the Belarusian winning each of them. The American has been eliminated from the US Open by Sabalenka on three occasions, while their most recent meeting came in the Madrid Open at the end of April, with the world No. 2 winning in three sets.
Sabalenka vs Collins: start time, how to watch
Aryna Sabalenka and Danielle Collins’ Italian Open semi-final is due to take place on Center Court on Thursday 16 May 2024, not before 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT. Viewers in the US can watch the tournament on Tennis Channel.