Collins keeps up winning run in farewell season

Danielle Collins is showing no signs of slowing down as she heads into retirement later this season, having won her second consecutive tournament on Sunday at the Credit One Charleston Open in South Carolina.

The unseeded Collins crushed fourth-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 on the clay surface in 77 minutes for her 13th consecutive match victory after winning the hard-court Miami Open a week earlier.

Fellow American Serena Williams was the last player to win Miami and Charleston in the same year in 2013, and Williams did the same in 2008.

The 13-match tour-level win streak is Collins’ career best, supplanting her 12-match run in 2021 which included victories in Palermo, Italy, and San Jose, Calif.

Collins started February at No. 71 in the world rankings and is projected for the top 15 on Monday. The 2022 Australian Open runner-up outplayed No. 11 Kasatkina in winners (37-10), won 95.2 percent (20 of 21) of first serve points and saved both break points she faced.

Home-country favourite Camila Osorio completed an impressive run, defeating No. 1 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (5) before a partisan crowd to win her second title in Bogota.

Osorio, who won her first WTA Tour crown in Bogota in 2021, was seeded sixth, ranked No. 85 in the world and had not won consecutive matches this season. The Colombian lost just one set en route to the championship.

Along the way, Osorio ended two-time defending champion and second-seeded Tatjana Maria’s 14-match winning streak in Bogota in the quarterfinals.

Osorio converted 50 percent (4 of 8) of her break-point opportunities, to 33.3 percent (3 of 9)) for Bouzkova. She also had a 26-16 edge in winners. — Reuters.