In her final Wimbledon, American Danielle Collins will seek a first fourth-round berth when she faces Beatriz Haddad Maia for the first time in their careers at the All England Club on Saturday.
No.11 seed Collins matched her career-best Wimbledon performance with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Hungary's Dalma Galfi in Thursday's second round. She also reached the third-round of the grass-court Grand Slam in 2019.
Wimbledon 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Qualifier Galfi led Collins 1-0 in their career head-to-head after beating her in Indian Wells 12 months ago, but from 3-3 in the opening set, the former Australian Open finalist was nearly unstoppable. She won eight of nine games to open up a 6-3, 5-1 lead -- until things got complicated. As wind kicked up on the grass courts, Collins failed to convert a match point at 5-2 or 5-4 -- serving for victory twice -- before finally sealing the match with a seventh break of Galfi's serve. Ten of Collins' 29 unforced errors in victory were double faults, but she had 17 break points against the World No.127's serve in total.
"[I'm] feeling good," Collins said afterwards. "It was tricky conditions with the wind. Obviously, that throws another element to the grass already being a little bit tricky. So I had to be on my toes out there.
"Sometimes you line up for a shot, and you think you have it, and then all of a sudden it's in a different direction. So, yeah, had to just really be on my toes and ready at all times."
Haddad Maia, who reached the Round of 16 last year, meanwhile played just three games against Camila Osorio before the Colombian retired from their second-round match on Court 15 with a left thigh injury. Haddad Maia was leading 3-0 before Osorio retired.
The abridged victory earned Haddad Maia a second win in as many matches this week at Wimbledon, marking the first time that the Brazilian has won back-to-back matches since the Mutua Madrid Open in April.
Here's what else is at stake in the next match between the two former Top 10 players:
- Haddad Maia is also seeking to match her best Wimbledon run. Last year in the last 16, she was forced to retire against Elena Rybakina just five games into their Centre Court match due to injury.
- This Wimbledon is Collins' 27th career Grand Slam tournament, and the grass-court Grand Slam is the only one of the four major tournaments where Collins has not reached the second week. In addition to reaching the Australian Open final in 2022, she also reached the fourth round of the US Open that year -- and was a Roland Garros quarterfinalist in 2020.
- Opportunity will knock in the fourth round for the winner of the match between Collins and Haddad Maia. The other third-round match in this section sees former Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova, the No.31 seed, take on unseeded Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro -- who backed up her first-round upset of defending champion and No.6 seed Marketa Vondrousova with a 7-6(1), 6-3 win over Cristina Bucsa.
