Danielle Collins: US tennis star reaches Australian Open semifinals after life-changing surgery

By Ben Church, CNN

Updated 0906 GMT (1706 HKT) January 26, 2022

Danielle Collins celebrates a point in her quarterfinal match.

(CNN)The life of an elite athlete is rarely straightforward but Danielle Collins has had to fight harder than most.

In April, the American was undergoing emergency surgery for endometriosis and had suffered an abdominal injury at the French Open. Fast forward to 2022 and the 28-year-old has just progressed into the semifinals of theAustralian Open after she beat France's Alize Cornet 7-5 6-1 on Wednesday. «It feels incredible. I think especially after some of the health challenges that I've had to be able to get back to this level and be able to compete the way that I have been, being able to be as physical as I have been has been so rewarding,» Collins said after the quarterfinal win. The Floridian has always been candid about her health struggles and says the pain from her endometriosis — a condition where the tissue that lines the uterus grows outside of it — was some of the worst she's ever experienced. Read More«I got to the point where I could no longer manage without it,» she told the WTA website in August last year, adding that she was in extreme pain particularly during her menstrual cycles.«Had I not had the surgery, I just couldn't keep living my life like that. The agony that I experienced from my menstrual cycles and from the endometriosis is some of the worst pain I've ever had.»READ: Teenagers make history for Iran and Kenya at Australian OpenCollins kicks a ball in frustration in her match against Alize Cornet.Semifinal runCollins credits the surgeon for saving her career and she's now playing some of the best tennis of her life since bursting onto the scene with a semifinal run in