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‘If I Was a Guy I Wouldn’t Have to..’- Danielle Collins Ends Persistent Retirement Question With a Stoic Response

Published 03/27/2024, 9:11 PM EDT

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via Reuters

American professional tennis player, Danielle Collins made a heartbreaking statement about her retirement and Miami Open performance. Collins has been suffering from endometriosis, a disease which is not letting this American tennis star bag a Grand Slam despite being a tough contender for the title. However, Danielle Collins is not ready to give up. Her performance at the ongoing Miami Open tournament brought a lot of hope about her form. However, a few questions about her retirement disappointed the American tennis star.

Collins’ struggle with endometriosis has been considerably long. Her surgery in April 2021 to deal with the constant pain impacted her health resulting in her long absence from the court. At the Australian Open 2024, Collins announced her retirement. Now being questioned about the same, this American tennis star shares her unhappiness.

Danielle Collins says she had to “justify” her retirement decision as she is a female tennis player

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After defeating Caroline Garcia at the ongoing Miami Open, Collins was asked whether she would reconsider her retirement decision given that she is back at her old form. The interviewer also asked if this positive consistency remained if Collins decided to pass on the retirement. In her response, Collins addressed that she felt such questions repeatedly being asked of her as she is a WTA player. Danielle Collins said- “ I feel like I have had to justify my decision a lot, I feel like if I was a guy, I probably wouldn’t have to justify it that much.”

This American WTA player further delved deeper into her challenges. Referring to her issues with pregnancy, Collins further said- “I think it’s really interesting how in a lot of different situations I have had to kind of justify the reasons behind retirement. I’m living with a chronic inflammatory disease that affects your ability to get pregnant, and so that’s, like, a deeply, like, personal situation. I’ve kind of explained that from time to time.

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However, she admitted that retirement is her personal choice and she wouldn’t limit her life to tennis and her career. Collins ended by saying- “This is so much more to do than just tennis and my career. I’m enjoying my career. I’m having a lot of fun. I love coming out here and competing. But at the end of the day, like, this is a really big, like, life decision, and yeah, I think that that should be, like, pretty understandable, yeah.

However, the fraternity was anxious since Collins herself made a statement about her retirement at the debut Grand Slam event of the year.

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What did Danielle Collins say about her retirement at the Australian Open 2024?

After accepting her defeat against Polish prodigy Iga Swiatek, Collins felt very emotional and distressed. Back then she spoke about giving up and taking a retirement from her career. Collins said- “This is going to be my last season actually, competing… I don’t really know exactly when, but this will be my last season and I’m really looking forward to that.”

Back in an interview with WTA in 2022, Collins commented on her struggling days- “I had so many doctors tell me that painful periods were normal. This progressively got worse and worse. The agony that I experienced from my menstrual cycles and from the endometriosis is some of the worst pain I’ve ever had. It was scary at times.”

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Danielle Collins’s statement reveals that the fraternity might be a little rude to the WTA players. Given that Collins is suffering from so much, she deserves to have mental support that motivates her to stay at the sport and achieve more feats.

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Written by:

Upasana Banerjee

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Upasana Banerjee is a Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports. Specializing in major trends within the tennis world, Upasana's keen eye captures newsworthy moments in the world of sports. Her adept information mining makes her a go-to source for insights into players' lives.
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Edited by:

Ananya Giri