2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals: Danielle Collins, a future U.S. captain?

Collins kicked off Rinaldi’s final days in the big chair—she’ll cede the captaincy to former Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport next year—by beating Switzerland’s Celine Naef 7-6(4), 6-1 to put the U.S. team up 1-0 in their Group A round-robin tie against the 2022 champions.

Despite more than 130 places between Collins’ career-high ranking, No. 7, and 18-year-old Naef, the world No. 139 making her Billie Jean King Cup debut this week, the result was in doubt, at least over the first hour-plus. Collins, now ranked No. 55 after having not played in more than a month, was pushed hard by the precocious teen—a former junior world No. 4 who scored a win over Venus Williams this summer. Collins trailed both 15-40 at 4-4, as well as 4-1 in the ensuing tiebreak.

But once the 2022 Australian Open finalist got going, she never looked back. Over 1 hour and 42 minutes, Collins hammered 25 winners to improve her singles record in the event to 6-1.

It's an X-factor that Collins hopes takes the U.S. all the way to a record-extending 19th Billie Jean King Cup crown.

“When you have a close relationship with your coaches … and even those around you, you feel more motivation to really get the win. You feel that support behind you all the way,” Collins continued.

“Coming out today, I had a couple of weeks off, coming back from a little bit of an injury. I would have liked to have taken control of the match a little bit earlier. It did go through my head that this is Kathy's last match, and I want to do my best not just for my teammates, but for Kathy in particular, because it is her last match.

“I really just hope that all of us can make this week as memorable as possible for her. I know a lot of us have known Kathy since we were juniors, and so it really is surreal kind of having this all come to fruition, with our games and where we are at with our careers and how now we are playing in the biggest stage of the world.