Danielle Collins Set to Become US No. 1 Despite Australian Final Loss

U.S. tennis star Danielle Collins will break into the upper echelons of tennis after her run to the final of the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, leapfrogging four other players to become U.S. number 1.

Collins, 28, from Florida, lost the final on Saturday to home crowd favorite Ashleigh Barty, but her ranking points from the two weeks in Melbourne will catapult her from 30th in the world to the top 10.

She will jump over compatriots Sofia Kenin, Cori Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Jennifer Brady, all of whom were ranked between 13 and 28 when the tournament began.

Collins has also won $1.1 million in prize money for reaching the final, after having accumulated $3,750,895 in her career.

Collins has been beset with health problems in recent years, having been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019, and more recently endometriosis, a gynecological condition.

Speaking after the final, she said: "I'm honestly just lucky to be out here competing, and to have gotten this far has been incredible with some the adversity I've faced physically early on in the tournament - I would not be able to do what I did today without the medical staff and dedicated physios who have worked around the clock."

Barty ended a 44-year wait for an Australian home champion, winning 6-3, 7-6 (2), recovering a 5-1 deficit in the second set to win in a tie-break. The top-ranked Barty now has major titles on three surfaces, adding the hard court at Melbourne Park to her win on grass at Wimbledon last year and on clay at the French Open in 2019, as per the Associated Press.

Collins addressed the issue of her endometriosis in remarks on Wednesday following her quarter-final victory over Alize Cornet at the Australian Open. She underwent surgery last year to have a cyst removed. It was reportedly the size of a tennis ball.

"When you're dealing with that type of physical pain multiple weeks out of the month, you're not putting yourself in a position to be able to perform consistently and to be at your best, whether as an athlete or a person," the tennis star said.

"I do think had I had the diagnosis a little bit earlier, it certainly could have benefited me," Collins said.

"But it's just one of those things that didn't happen, so now it's great that we know what was going on, we were able to go in surgically and fix it. Now I'm able to live my best life and be able to feel like a normal person," she said.