Danielle Collins dominates Svitolina in Montreal to move into second round

American qualifier Danielle Collins defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Canadian Open at Stade IGA in Montreal on Tuesday evening.

Svitolina had won 15 of her last 19 matches, including her quarter-final run at Roland-Garros and her semi-final run at Wimbledon.

All business 💼

Danielle Collins takes out the 2017 champion Svitolina, 6-2, 6-2.#NO23 pic.twitter.com/szmBARsf2p

— wta (@WTA) August 8, 2023

“She’s definitely playing a really high level, and I kind of felt like in a lot of the points she was running down so many balls that a lot of players would normally not get to,” 46th-ranked Collins said after improving 2-0 lifetime against the Ukrainian. “To be able to win those tough points and to be just solid from the baseline as well and not making a lot of mistakes and still playing with some aggression I think was key for me.”

Collins improved to 11-13 in tour matches this season and told the media later that she prefers playing a less demanding schedule.

“Sometimes I joke with my coach, and I tell him the more I play, the worse I get. I don’t know if that’s really true, but it’s a little bit of a cop-out (laughing) so that I can have more time at home and play a less demanding schedule, ” the former Australian Open runner-up said. “I love competing. I love being out here on tour, but I think I’m certainly not someone that’s going to play 25 tournaments a year and a million matches. I feel like I have a pretty good balance with my life and wanting to do other things. When I do show up, I try to bring my best. Yeah, I certainly try to emphasize more quality tournaments over quantity I would say.”

Collins won against a top 50 opponent for just the second time in her last 11 matches.

Danielle is still in Barbie Land 💕😅#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/vdm3lp07p7

— wta (@WTA) August 8, 2023

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Tennis Majors

Collins, ranked No 48, will face No 8 seed Maria Sakkari next.

Montreal WTA 1000, other first-round matches (Stade IGA, hard, USD 2,788,468):

• Katie Boulter (Q) beat Rebecca Marino (WC): 6-3, 6-1
• Sloane Stephens beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-4, 7-6 (2)
• Jennifer Brady beat Jelena Ostapenko: 7-6 (7), 0-6, 7-6 (8)
• Madison Keys (13) beat Venus Williams (WC): 6-2, 7-5
• Belinda Bencic (12) beat Lucia Bronzetti: 6-2, 6-3
• Sorana Cirstea beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Victoria Azarenka (16) beat Magda Linette: 6-3, 6-0
• Marie Bouzkova beat Kayla Day (Q): 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Jasmine Paolini beat Donna Vekic: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Karolina Pliskova beat Lin Zhu: 6-3, 6-7 (8), 6-2
• Camila Giorgi vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Mayar Sherif
• Petra Martic vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Magdalena Frech
• Marta Kostyuk vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Anna Blinkova vs. Shuai Zhang
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Peyton Stearns
• Elise Mertens vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Bernarda Pera vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Karolina Muchova
• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Kimberly Birrell
• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Alycia Parks vs. Lauren Davis