2024 in American tennis has been defined by two things – an invincible Danielle Collins and an unstoppable Coco Gauff. With Collins on her retirement tour, the 30-year-old is at the peak of her career with two WTA 500 titles in a row. Gauff, after her 2023 US Open win, is slowly heating up the engine again. But not one to be bogged down by pundits’ expectations, the young American champ has decided to play tennis for herself, and only herself. Danielle Collins couldn’t agree more.

Constantly questioned about her decision to retire, Collins has had enough. Constantly receiving negative feedback on her forehand, Gauff has had enough. Her recent appearance for TIME magazine’s Time100 Leadership Series is aptly titled, “Coco Gauff Is Playing for Herself Now.” Danielle Collins shared the post from Gauff’s Instagram on her story, captioning it, “This girl” with a bunch of emojis, including starry eyes, hearts, the ‘lit’ sign, and the American flag. One sister in support of another!

In the TIME article, Gauff describes how she put too much of her identity into tennis at first. The 2023 early exit at Wimbledon sent the young WTA star to a “really dark place”. A conscious effort had to be made to bring herself out of the funk, and it needed a changed mindset. “It is much easier to play for yourself than it is for other people,” Coco Gauff said. “I realized it’s impossible to satisfy everyone.” And this year, Danielle Collins has decided to do the same.

Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019, Collins had thought at first, “Oh my gosh, is this the end of my career.” Two years later came the diagnosis of endometriosis, after which she had to undergo surgery to remove a tennis ball-sized cyst from her ovary. It’s 2024 now and she’s still going strong. But Collins is getting ready to move on. “Balancing two chronic inflammatory conditions when you’re a professional athlete is not an easy thing,” she told ABC News.

Despite everything, Collins has stated that health did not play a part in her decision to retire. “I finally got to the point where I’ve been able to manage it well and been able to take care of my body, manage around the cycles and all of that fun stuff. I just feel like I’m getting to that stage in life where I’m ready for something new,” Collins told the WTA Tour.

At the end of the day, both these strong women are playing for themselves. While the two have an age gap of 10 years between them, besides tennis, Gauff and Collins also have another common interest.

Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins – at ease when interacting with children

Near the end of March, Danielle Collins sat down for an interview where she revealed that aside from playing tennis, the Florida native had also turned into a coach. Collins has been mentoring three budding tennis players, aged 18, 15, and 10 in her hometown.

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While Coco Gauff has not done anything of the sort yet, she does “still feel very youthful.” During crowd interaction moments, kids are Gauff’s favorite fans to deal with. As she tells TIME magazine, the young star still dresses up as Aisha from The Winx Club for Halloween, still watches SpongeBob SquarePants.

While they may be different, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins are also alike. Each is taking the world by storm in her own way.