Danielle Collins wins first WTA title in Palermo

Danielle Collins was dominant in Palermo last week, as she stormed to her first WTA title without dropping a set on the Italian red clay. Playing in her first career WTA final, the 27-year-old defeated Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, 6-4, 6-2, in Sunday's final at the 250-level event.

The top seed at a tournament for the first time in her WTA career, Collins lived up to that billing by ending her opponent's 12-match winning streak in the title match. Ruse had previously beaten Collins at the Hamburg Open earlier this month on her way to her first WTA title. But after a tight opening set, it was all Collins in Sunday's rematch.

The Florida native, who first staked her claim at the top of the women's game with surprise semifinal runs at the 2018 Miami Open and 2019 Australian Open, got beyond that stage for the first time by defeating China's Shuai Zhang to reach the final in Palermo. The title caps a strong month for the former University of Virginia star, who reached the semis at another WTA 250 in Budapest two weeks ago. Including Wimbledon, where she fell to Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic in Round 2, Collins has competed in four events across the last four weeks, compiling a 9-2 record in three European clay-court events.

"It's given me so much self-confidence to finally win a tournament, because I've been on tour now for a couple of years, and that was one of my goals," Collins said after the match.

"I’ve been improving, clearly, based on my results and being able to go longer with my stamina throughout the events," she added. "That was my main goal in playing all of the tournaments the last four weeks. It was just really rewarding to think about."

With the victory, her ranking jumps nine spots to No. 35. Collins reached a career-high of No. 23 in January 2019.

Krueger wins Cary Challenger on Pro Circuit

Back stateside, Mitchell Krueger won his second career ATP Challenger title with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Ramkumar Ramanathan in Cary, North Carolina. Following a semifinal run on the USTA Pro Circuit in Little Rock, Arkansas, in June, the 27-year-old Texan would not be stopped on the hard courts of Carolina.

After winning two three-setters in the early rounds, including a comeback win against former UNC Tar Heel Will Blumberg in Round 1, the sixth-seeded Krueger was a straight-sets winner in both the final and semifinal. 

"It's always something you ideally want to happen," Kruger said of the clinical victories, speaking to Mike Cation for ATPTour.com. "It's a running joke with the guys that I play a lot of three-set matches. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, when I'm down I always try to fight back. There's always a lot of three-setters. This time of year, when it's super hot and humid, you want to spend as little time on court as possible.

"It's toeing that fine line of expending as little energy as possible, while not rushing through the match and make some bad errors and mistakes. I found that line really well this week. I also served really well and it was clicking all week. Today [in the final], I dug out a few close holds that could have potentially changed the match."

In the Cary doubles event, top-seeded Americans Christian Harrison and Dennis Novikov defeated Petros Chrysochos (Cyrpus) and Michail Pervolarakis (Greece), 6-3, 6-3, to win the title. The champions did not drop a set on the week.

Other American title-winners last week include:

• John Isner - doubles winner at the ATP 250 event in Los Cabos, Mexico
• Jessican Aney - doubles champion at the ITF World Tennis Tour W60 event in Olomouc, Czech Republic
  
• Chiara Scholl - doubles champ at the ITF WTT W25 event in Les Contamines-Montjoie, France
• Dalayna Hewitt - singles champ at the ITF WTT W15 event in Monastir, Turkey
• Patrick Kypson - singles champion at the ITF WTT M15 event in Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg
• Nathan Ponwithg & Reese Stakder - doubles champions at the USTA Pro Circuit and ITF WTT M15 event in Edwardsville, Illinois