St. Pete’s Danielle Collins to play for US Olympic tennis team

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — St.  Petersburg’s Danielle Collins has made the United States’ tennis team for the Paris Olympics this summer.

Collins, 30, a 2012 graduate of Northeast High School, has said this will be her final season on the tour.

A four-time winner as a professional, Collins competed collegiately for Florida and Virginia. She has won two titles this year at tournaments in Miami and Charleston.

Olympic tennis play starts July 27.

The U.S. Olympic tennis team was announced in full on Thursday.

In addition to 11-ranked Collins, the U.S. women’s team is made up of singles world No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 5 Jessica Pegula, No. 11, No. 17 Emma Navarro, and doubles No. 11 Desirae Krawczyk.

The team will be coached by Kathy Rinaldi, the USTA’s head of women’s tennis. Gauff, Pegula, Collins and Navarro will play singles, while Gauff and Pegula, and Collins and Krawczyk, will play doubles. 

The U.S. has won a world-leading 24 Olympic medals, 14 of them gold, in tennis since it returned as a full medal sport in 1988.

The women will be favorites to reach the podium again on the strength of players who’ve excelled on the clay courts of Roland Garros before, including Collins, who previously reached the quarterfinals at the tournament.