Danielle Collins secured the biggest win of her career after stunning world number 14 Madison Keys 6-3 7-6(1) to advance to the third round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
The world number 114 broke Keys three times during the first set as she looked to dominate her higher ranked opponent from the start of the match. Despite breaking back for 2-2 at the start of the set, Keys looked confused and couldn’t respond to the early pressure and power from Collins. A third break in the ninth game secured the first set as she looked to continue her momentum from her first round victory over Taylor Townsend.
The second set saw a response from the US Open runner-up as she grabbed an early break for 2-1 and it looked like the American was going to force a deciding set after some fantastic forehands. However her mental stability was tested and she ultimately failed the test after being broken, when serving for the second set not once but twice. After three breaks of serve from 5-4, the second set was decided in a tiebreak, which eventually saw Collins storm to victory in 1 hour and 46 minutes.
After the match Collins admitted that she knew she had a chance to beat Keys, “I’ve had a couple solid weeks playing good tennis and I knew I had a chance today if I competed my hardest and put everything out there.” Danielle Collins will now play Sofya Zhuk or Magdalena Rybarikova in the third round.
In other results Elina Svitolina continued her impressive start to the season with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Germany’s Mona Barthel. Despite the German’s hard work, the fourth seed completed victory in 1 hour and 22 minutes with some lightening quick movement. This is a big few weeks for the Ukrainian if she wants to prove to people that she can win a slam-like tournament and she has made the perfect start. She will now face Carla Suarez Navarro in the next round, who came past Su-Wei Hsieh in three sets.
