The tournament has ended, but the story goes on. Danielle Collins is not the Australian Open champion — Ash Barty beat her 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) early Saturday morning — but that’s just a minor plot twist. It arrives somewhere after the struggle but shortly before the breakthrough.
And that breakthrough will come. If not in Melbourne, then in Paris. If not in Wimbledon, then in New York. Sooner or later, Collins will have a second shot at a Grand Slam title.
Is that just fanciful thinking? Maybe it is. After all, the St. Petersburg, Fla., native is already 28 and, if you’re talented enough to win a major, you’ve usually claimed one by now.
