By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, September 14, 2025
Photo credit: Marco Bertorelli/Getty
Danielle Collins’ 2025 campaign is over, but the pain persists.
The 2024 Miami Open and Charleston champion, who has been battling a back injury, shared she’s had to make recent visits to the hospital and is continuing her recovery.
“It has been the absolute worst being a million miles away from home, feeling sick, my back just absolutely killing me, and being up all hours of the night,” Collins posted on Instagram. “I don’t know what I would have done without my friends @isabeau_ruiter and @menno_de_groot if they weren’t there to help take care of me the last few days.
“From taking me to the hospital, driving me all over to get in with the right doctor, making me food, bringing me tea, laying in the living room with me while watching just like that, going on little walks with me, and being so understanding when I’d tell them I need to lay flat again or go to the car to put the seat warmer on my back. Having amazing friends makes the good days greater and the bad days better.”
Collins, who has both endometriosis and rheumatoid arthritis, has been suffering from a herniated disc in her back. The injury impacted her serve and left Collins unable to carry her racquet bag off court following her Cincinnati Open loss to friend Taylor Townsend last month. Townsend carried Collins’ bag for her after the match ended.
The 31-year-old Floridian suffered a 6-2, 6-0 loss Romanian Jaqueline Cristian in last month’s US Open first round. Though Collins initially planned to retire at the end of 2024, she suggested she will return to the WTA Tour in 2026, if she can regain her health.
