8-5-21—DANIELLE COLLINS RETURNS A SERVE DURING HER THREE SETS VICTORY OVER SLOANE STEPHENS ON MONDAY EVENING AT THE MUBADALA SILICON VALLEY CLASSIC. Courtesy of Sports Radio Service

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE–Danielle Collins is not afraid to be emotional on a tennis court.

She rode a wave of emotion in coming back from a one set deficit to defeat Sloane Stephens in a three set victory 3-6 6-4 6-3 that was the crescendo of Day 4 at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at the San Jose State University Tennis Complex.

Stephens seized the momentum early when she won five straight games, three to finish off the first set and the first two of set two. Collins then turned the tables and won the next three to gain the momentum on her side.

“It was a really hard fight,” said Collins after the match. “I just really had to lock in to what I was doing. Take it point by point because it was hard at times, mentally and physically.”

Collins became emotional during the second set being upset at herself when she hit the net or hit a ball out of bounds. She then used that same emotion to win three straight games after the third set was tied at 2-2. Screaming at the crowd after each point she won, firing herself up as she closed out the match.

“Sometimes I get really locked in and I’m not doing that. And then I realized in the third set I’m like oh ok, I’m getting really fired up now. Where was this in the second set or even some of the points in the first set. I guess when it really matter I was able to get myself fired up” Collins said.

Number one seed Elise Mertens of Belgium defeated France’s Kristina Mladenovic in a difficult three set battle 6-2 4-6 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals on Friday.

After cruising through the first set only losing two games, Mertens faced a challenging test from Mladenovic who battled to even the match after going ahead 4-3 in the second set.

Mertens relied on her ability of having a strong return game. Mertens was able to outlast her opponent as she finished off the match winning the last two games.

“I think in the second set she (Mladenovic) started to fill the ball a little bit better. I just tried to struggle through. I think it was important to win the last ball and just keep fighting like I did today and hopefully my level (of play) will be a bit higher tomorrow.”

Second seeded Elena Rybakina of Russia need one set to get going before dispatching American Claire Liu in a three-set victory 2-6 6-0 6-2 victory finishing off the afternoon portion of the schedule.

Rybakina powered her way past Lui in the last two sets with huge serves that were to hot too handle for Lui. Rybakina fastest serve hit 116mph on the radar gun and she averaged over 100mph throughout the match.

“The serve was much better in the second set and third (set),” said Rybakina. “In the second set I focused a bit more on my serve. Overall it was a good match, a good win for me. I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Rybakina takes on Collins in the featured evening quarterfinal match on Friday at 7:00pm.

In the opening match of the day Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva won a hard fought three-sets battle over Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 3-6-7-4 6-3.

Putintseva played with lots of emotion during the match. After losing the first set in which saw Tomljanovic take control early in the set, Putintseva used a combination of her patent drop shot and strong backhand to keep Tomljanovic running up and down the court.

No one broke serve in the second set until Putintseva did it at 5-5. The next two games featured good rallies with both games going back and forth before Putintseva was able to even the match.

“It was so close,” said Tomljanovic regarding the tightly battle second set. “I had so many chances to break in that second (set). It was a 40-love game at four all. She played well, but (the) little things made the difference.”

In the third set Putintseva was relentless with her backhand and never looked back after going up 5-2. Despite being frustrated with herself and with the crowd at times (she paused her serve during the third set to yell at the crowd “Shut up!”), she kept the pressure on Tomljanovic, which proved to be too much for the Aussie.

“It seems like a bad week but I played some good tennis and I can definitely take a lot of positives out of today. It’s the first tournament in the US Open swing so I’m not going to dwell too long (over the loss) and I don’t have time to anyway. So I want to get back out there next week (in Montreal) and take what I did and turn it into a positive,” Tomljanovic said.

In doubles action, the American duo of Coco Vandeweghe and Cathy McNally defeated the Russian/Ukrainian team of Valeria Savinykh and Dayana Yastremska as Yastemska retired due to a medical condition. McNally and Vandeweghe were leading 6-4 6-5 at the time. They earned a spot in the doubles semifinals.

Friday’s Singles Quarterfinals Lineup: Matches begin at 11:00am

Daria Kasatkina vs Magda Linette

Elise Mertens vs Yulia Putintseva

Ana Konjuh vs Shuai Zhang at 4:30pm

Daniel Collins/Sloane Stephens vs Elena Rybakina at 7:00pm