WHAT HAPPENED: Caroline Dolehide advanced to the second round of the 2024 US Open for the first time in her career after upsetting compatriot and No. 11 seed Danielle Collins, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, on Tuesday. With this loss, Collins has played her last Grand Slam singles match, as she plans to retire at the end of the season.
This match must’ve felt like a case of deja vu for both players. Two of their three tour-level meetings took place in the first round of a major—at the French Open earlier in May and at the Australian Open in 2022. Collins won both encounters in straight sets; in Melbourne, she went on to reach the final.
Given those results, on paper, Collins looked to be the heavy favorite—and that was without considering her form over the past season. Since announcing 2024 would be her last year on tour, all she seemed to do was win. In the spring, she captured back-to-back titles in Miami and Charleston (on two different surfaces, no less) and has claimed 38 match wins since January—a personal record and the fifth-most on tour. She ended 2023 ranked world No. 55 and is now hovering just below the Top 10.
And from the outset, Collins appeared to be in full flight. She stepped inside the court and smacked the ball off both wings to the corners, breaking Dolehide at love in the second game. She ultimately won 10 of the first 11 points, and by the fourth game, she’d already tallied 11 winners. Collins was somewhat challenged at times on her own serve, but she saved every break point she faced. She broke Dolehide again to go up 5-1 and easily served out the first set, holding at love and hitting three more winners in the process.
Collins was so dominant in the first set that it seemed over in a New York minute. The second, conversely, felt suspended in motion. Considering Collins’ level in the early stages, a dip felt inevitable—and the second began with Dolehide breaking Collins for the first time to go up 2-0. Collins broke right back, but she immediately found herself under more pressure on her own serve, especially as she began to misfire her shots and double faults began to rack up.
The pair played a 15-minute, nine-deuce game in which the world No. 11 saved five break points—including one with an ace that elicited a trademark Collins roar. She came through that battle, but neither player could gather enough momentum to maintain a lead. Serving at 4-5, Collins found herself down three set points at 0-40 after a string of unforced errors. She dialed up her aggression to save all three and subsequently held, but she could not do the same in her very next service game. Dolehide won her first set against her higher-ranked opponent for the first time since 2017. Collins—who only committed eight unforced errors in the first—finished with 30 in the second.
In the third, Collins started to find her rhythm again, and both players held serve with relative ease through the first seven games. But Collins’ shots began to err again and Dolehide grabbed the break to go up 3-5. She then stepped to the line to serve it out and earned two match points. Collins hit a scintillating return to save one, and Dolehide double faulted away the next. Shortly thereafter Collins broke right back and it looked like the Miami and Charleston champion might have wrestled momentum back in her favor, in a bid to extend her Grand Slam singles career. But Collins could not hold, and Dolehide emerged victorious on the third match point.
After the bout, Dolehide paid tribute to her opponent on court; the pair contested professional matches against each other dating back to 2016.
“She plays at such a high level,” Dolehide said. “You see the year that she’s had, and she’s an incredible player. I have a lot of respect for her, and, you know, she’s beaten me every single time that we’ve played each other [on tour], so today was my day and I’m just super happy to compete against her. I wish her all the best.”
In press, Collins was equally complimentary of Dolehide. “There were times that I had some good shots, and there were times that it didn't go my way,” she said. “But I think overall Caroline played very well and was running down a lot of balls. So all credit to her.”
Reflecting on her career, Collins reiterated that she planned to play through the end of the year—and that she still remained alive in the doubles draw, partnering with a different Caroline (Garcia, of France). But she said that despite everything she accomplished in 2024 alone, she still looked forward to hanging up her tennis shoes for good at season’s end in November.
“I think everybody has been so encouraging, and, you know, it's a compliment that people want to see me play more,” she said. “But at the same time, I'm just kind of ready for that next chapter.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Dolehide has now reached the second round of a Grand Slam for the third time, after scoring the same result at the French Open in 2018 and the Australian Open earlier this year. She next faces 2012 US Open semifinalist Sara Errani—who came through her own three-set battle earlier in the day. The pair have never faced each other.
MATCH POINT: The second set alone—at 78 minutes—lasted 12 minutes longer than defending champion Coco Gauff’s entire first round match.
