American tennis stalwart Danielle Collins defeated Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 6-1 to secure her second semifinal berth since 2019 at the Australian Open here on Wednesday.Three years after making her first Grand Slam semifinal, the No.27 seed from the United States defeated Cornet in a one-hour and 28-minute quarterfinal at the Rod Laver Arena, playing her first tournament of 2022.Collins made her Grand Slam breakthrough at the 2019 Australian Open, when she charged into the semifinals ranked world No.35, just outside of the seedings. During that run, she picked up her first top-5 win, defeating former champion Angelique Kerber of Germany in the round of 16.The 28-year-old American has been in great form if late, going 31-7 since last July. Collins now has an outside chance of making her top-10 debut in the WTA singles rankings after the Australian Open, but she will need to reach the final to do that.
The loss ends a career-best Grand Slam run for world No.61 Cornet. The former world No.11 defeated Simona Halep of Romania in the round of 16 on January 24 to at last make her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, in her 63rd career Grand Slam main draw.The Frenchwoman shattered the record for most Grand Slam appearances before reaching a maiden quarterfinal. The record was previously held by Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, who reached the 2008 Wimbledon quarterfinals in her 45th major.Cornet has played the last 60 Grand Slam events consecutively, and will break the all-time record for consecutive Grand Slam main draws if she contests all four majors this year. Ai Sugiyama of Japan currently holds that record, with 62 straight Grand Slam main draws.Collins had to recover from a set down in her two prior matches, but held on in a tough first set before cruising through the second set this time around. The American had 28 winners to Cornet's 11 in the match, according to wtatennis.com.