Miami 2024: Danielle Collins stays 'in the zone' with Caroline Garcia upset in QFs

Danielle Collins is making the most of her final Miami Open appearance. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native advanced to the semifinals at the WTA 1000 in her home state on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-2 upset of 23rd seed Caroline Garcia.

With the American set to retire after the 2024 season, she has bookended her Miami career with two semifinal showings. In her 2018 debut she also advanced to the final four, becoming the first qualifier to reach that stage in the tournament's history.

Against 2022 US Open semifinalist and former World No. 4 Garcia, Collins continued her red-hot form by extending her run of consecutive sets won to 10 in Miami. Since she lost the opening set of her campaign to compatriot Bernarda Pera, Collins has dropped just 19 games in those 10 frames.

"I think a lot of these sports psychology books... they talk about being in the zone, almost feeling like you're hitting beach balls," she said in her post-match press conference. "I think it can feel like that at times. That's a good thing.

"In other times that I have played well and have had deep runs in tournaments, it's been like that. And then in other times, there's days, it's like going out to the golf range and having a bad day and you're missing shots. But right now I'm timing the ball really well."

Collins also attributed her success to increased "accuracy and precision" on her shots—a result of small physical adjustments that have helped her improve her body control, she said.

A February finalist at the WTA 500 in Linz, Austria, Alexandrova prevented an all-American semifinal in Miami by beating Jessica Pegula, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, on Wednesday evening. Her victory against the fifth seed followed a fourth-round upset of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

After the match, Alexandrova was full of praise for Pegula's effort.

"It was extremely difficult for me because [Pegula] played amazing," she said. "In the third set, there were sometimes the kind of rallies where I couldn’t understand how it was possible to return that ball, but it always [came] back."

In addition to Collins' presence in the women's singles semis, two all-American teams are still standing in the women's doubles competition. In Tuesday's quarterfinals, Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands knocked out top seeds Elise Mertens and Hsieh Su-Wei, 1-6, 6-4, 11-9, while Asia Muhammad and Alycia Parks beat Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska, 5-7, 6-3, 10-6.