American tennis star Danielle Collins on Thursday stormed into the finals of the ongoing Australia Open.
The No. 27 seed defeated Poland’s Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-1 in the semi-final match that lasted for 78 minutes. This was also Swiatek’s first semi-final, where she made her place after defeating Kaia Kanepi to win the second-longest women’s singles match of the fortnight so far, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3.
The 3 hour, 1-minute victory is the longest match of Swiatek’s young career at a Grand Slam to date, bettering a 2 hour, 42-minute 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-5 defeat to another Estonian, Anett Kontaveit, in the third round in Australia two years ago.
With this win in the semi-final, Collins has entered her maiden Grand Slam finals. She will now be going against Ashleigh Barty. Barty defeated American tennis player Madison Keys 6-1 6-3 in the semi-final match that lasted for 62 minutes on Thursday. This was Barty’s first semi-final at the Australian Open since 2015 and Barty didn’t give any chance to the American tennis player to have control over the game.
With this win, Barty went on a ten-match winning streak as she outplayed Keys in the semi-final on Thursday. She is bidding to become the first Australian woman to lift the trophy in Melbourne since Chris O’Neil in 1978.