Nearly a year ago, in the heat of the Australian summer, Danielle Collins was reduced to a level of pain that she would not wish on another soul. By the third set of her match against Daria Kasatkina in the Phillip Island Trophy, an event held at Melbourne Park during the second week of the Australian Open, she fell to the ground while severely cramping in her abdominal muscles and pelvis.
Through her tears, Collins resorted to hitting underarm serves and throwing up desperate moonballs as she fell 6-1 in the final set. A week later, she withdrew from a tournament in Adelaide with acute back pain that MRI scans failed to identify a cause for.
