At final Roland Garros, Danielle Collins suffers shock exit to Olga Danilovic

Danielle Collins bowed out of her final Roland Garros in the second round, losing to Olga Danilovic, 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4.

Collins, who plans to retire at the end of the 2024 season, arrived in Paris as a dark horse contender for the title after compiling a 15-3 record on clay that helped her return to the Top 10. But the No. 11 seed couldn’t convert a set and break advantage against the Serbian qualifier, who played Collins to three sets last month at the Mutua Madrid Open and exited after two hours and 35 minutes on Court 10.

The American has been one of the feel-good stories of the year since announcing her surprising plans to hang up her racquets following a heartbreaking defeat to Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open, winning back-to-back titles at the Miami Open on hard courts and the Credit One Charleston Open on green clay.

Taking her winning streak to Europe, the 2022 Australian Open finalist lost only to Aryna Sabalenka at the Mutua Madrid Open and Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where she reached the fourth round and semifinals, respectively.

Though her impressive form has led to calls for her to reconsider retirement, Collins has held firm, speaking openly about post-career plans that include motherhood becoming an advocate for those who share her well-documented health struggles.

“I think society and even the people who follow my life closely have had a difficult time accepting the fact that I’m retiring, and it’s really bizarre!” she joked in Rome. “I’m going to be 31 at the end of the year, and that’s around the time when people make that milestone! It’s like, give me a break! Let me retire and have a family in peace!”

Just last week, she reached her third final of the season at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, falling to fellow American Madison Keys. Pivoting strongly to Roland Garros, the 2020 quarterfinalist scored a straight-set win over Caroline Dolehide and looked in good position to score a second win over Danilovic in two months, having beaten her in a third-set tiebreaker at the Caja Magica.

But Danilovic, who reached the third round last year and won three matches in qualifying to reach the main draw this year, had other plans: down a set and 5-3, she won six straight games, breaking Collins as she served for the match and sweeping ahead to a break lead in the ensuing decider.

Though Collins broke straight back, she called a medical timeout to address a possible neck or shoulder injury. Danilovic kept pressing and broke Collins once more to win one of the biggest matches of her career in just over two and a half hours.

A talented lefty who won her first WTA title as a teenaged lucky loser in 2018, Danilovic is the daughter of Serbian basketball star Predrag Danilovic and has trained at the Novak Djokovic Academy, enlisting the 24-time Grand Slam champion as a longtime mentor.

“I’ve had some setbacks, a lot of them!” she said last spring. “Those have been very tough moments for me, but I realized that I need to love myself in those shitty situations where it’s not so great and you don’t feel so great, and you kind of want to be there but you’re not.”

Peaking at No. 93 in the rankings last summer, Danilovic has long struggled with injuries and inconsistencies, but has a chance to secure the best Grand Slam result of her career should she defeat Donna Vekic and reach the second week.

“My favorite movie is Finding Nemo, and there’s Dory saying, ‘Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!’ So, it’s like, just keep playing, just keep playing, and we’ll see what happens.”

Vekic scored her own upset on Thursday, shocking No. 19 seed Marta Kostyuk to reach the third round of Roland Garros for only the third time in 12 main-draw appearances. The two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist will face Danilovic for the first time this weekend.