Danielle Collins on Wimbledon, retirement and what she will not miss about tennis... stalkers

Danielle Collins is leaving professional tennis at 30 to focus on starting a family - Belinda Jiao for the Telegraph

There is one thing in particular that American tennis player Danielle Collins will not miss when she retires this year. “The stalkers.”

Collins made this revelation in passing during a recent appearance on Andy Roddick’s ‘Served’ podcast. But was she serious?

“I’m serious,” Collins tells Telegraph Sport. “I don’t think it’s something that gets talked about a ton, but many of us have had security issues during our time playing on tour. I had a few different situations over the years. It’s never fun, the feeling of looking over your shoulder.”

Stalking is not uncommon on the tennis tour. In 1993, an obsessed Steffi Graf fan stabbed her rival, 19-year-old Monica Seles, on court in Hamburg. In 2012, a man was arrested for trying to break into the Wimbledon grounds to get close to Serena Williams. Then, two years ago, Emma Raducanu’s stalker was handed a five-year restraining order for showing up at her home three times.

The strange part of Collins’s case is that it began when she had a relatively small profile. Unlike the majority of top-10 players, Collins did not start playing professionally until after finishing college. In fact, she did not even own a passport until she was 22. The prospect of travelling the world was thrilling, but she got a quick awakening.

‘It has affected me very personally’

There were multiple cases, she says, and the stalking manifested itself both online and in person, to the stage where one depraved person began calling up her friends and family at work. Add to that the fact Collins often travels alone and it made her feel more vulnerable, even to this day.

“Social media does open up so many opportunities for us to connect with fans, at the same time it sometimes gives access to people who are really unwell and not in a great mental head space,” Collins says. “It does make you a little more cautious and sceptical. I still to this day have a really hard time when I get boxed in large groups of people, I feel scared when fans come running at me, throw things or touch me because of a few scary situations I’ve experienced.

“I don’t really go many places by myself, I make sure I always have security on site, and it’s been something I think that has affected me very personally. For a long time it was hard to be myself. Sometimes I would question myself and think, ‘What have I done to cause this person to believe that they can cross normal boundaries?’”

Collins is known for her occasionally spiky and always fiercely intense on-court persona. But because of the stalkers, she found she kept her guard up off the court too, as a form of self-preservation.

“I’ve had to be very vigilant and cautious about how I conduct my life, to make sure I’m safe. I think sometimes that has come across to fans as being withdrawn, distant, but the reality is that sometimes I’ve had to be more careful about what I say and do because I don’t want certain people knowing where I am, what I’m doing or patterns in my day-to-day life.

“That’s an important thing to highlight, because to other people it can be perceived as she doesn’t post often or she’s not very friendly, she doesn’t interact with fans or other players. But it’s like, ‘No, I don’t seem to interact with other players because I don’t want someone who’s been stalking me to go through who I’m friends with and then calling them at work – because that’s happened’.”

Collins is known for her fiercely intense on-court persona but has been shaken up by events off it - Getty Images/William West

Though she never went to the police, the Women’s Tennis Association dealt with the cases internally. A WTA spokesperson said “player safety is the tour’s number one priority”. It recently appointed a director of safeguarding and launched education for anyone seeking credentials to restricted areas.

“I think our security team at the WTA does a phenomenal job of handling these situations and I’m really grateful for that,” Collins says. “They were able to handle it in a way that made me feel safe. With the nature of our travel it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish whether someone is truly a fan or the other…”

The unease she felt did not stop her from making the most of her skills on the court. As an up-and-coming teen, Florida-born Collins did not “come from financial opportunity”, with a schoolteacher and a landscaper for parents. But she says it taught her how to “grind” on tour. That, plus her aggressive shot-making, helped her rise to world No 7 in 2022, reaching the Australian Open final that same year.

“The majority of my life and career, I don’t think people had super high expectations for me. To have the career I’ve had, I think it’s been surprising to many people – but those people weren’t paying close enough attention,” Collins says pointedly. “The athleticism I have, the emotional resilience I have shouldn’t have been overlooked and I think people see that now. But it’s good to have the racket do the talking now. That’s all that matters, right?”

She is talking on a stifling hot day at Hyde Park but, apart from a half-eaten ice-cream cone dripping down her hand, she appears completely unflustered by the heat. Her golden mane is perfectly blow-dried, sunglasses are on and she is excitedly pointing out the swans waterside at the Serpentine. “I’m geeking out about these birds,” she laughs.

‘I’ve shared something incredibly vulnerable and then to have to deal with many tone-deaf people’

Collins is a woman intent on soaking up her final run at Wimbledon. Though she is only 30, this year she announced that this season will be her last. That decision is partly down to wanting to start a family in the near future. She was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2016, a condition she has had numerous surgeries for and one that is known to affect fertility. There have been debilitating symptoms at times and she has spoken openly about its impact on her life, with her story helping the WTA to raise awareness of women’s health issues.

Since disclosing her impending retirement, Collins has had some of the best results of her career, winning the Miami Open and going on a 15-match winning streak. That surge prompted questions about whether she might change her mind on retirement, and she found it difficult to disguise her impatience with them, considering her health issues.

“I think, for the most part, it comes from a good place, from people who want to see me play more good tennis. But I find it sometimes shocking when I go into the press conference and I get asked, ‘What would change your mind about retirement?’ I’ve shared something incredibly vulnerable and then to have to deal with many tone-deaf people has been frustrating at times. A lot of people are unaware of the health conditions of women that can affect fertility and their life in general. But I think there’s also a part of society that’s insensitive and unempathetic when it comes to women’s health conditions.”

For now, the focus is on Wimbledon. Her first memories at the All England Club were taking a tour around the grounds after failing to come through qualifying in 2017.

“I remember the coach I was travelling with said, ‘Who knows, this may be the only time we’re ever here’. I was so overwhelmed seeing this place for the first time, I had tears in my eyes as I was walking around. I said ‘you know what, I’m not coming back here unless I’m making the main draw’. The next year I came back and I qualified. I haven’t had to go through qualifying again. I always get emotional when I come to Wimbledon.”

WIMBLEDON HEADLINES BOOK

Relive the greatest moments from Wimbledon through Telegraph articles

Pre-order now

Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.