"I was having my boyfriend help me a lot; It was awful; There were a lot of tears" - Danielle Collins on physical struggles before Miami Open triumph

Newly crowned 2024 Miami Open champion Danielle Collins recently shed light on her injury woes in the days leading up to the tournament.

Collins, who announced 2024 as her final season earlier this year, beat repeat finalist Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 to win her first title at a WTA 1000 tournament on Saturday, March 30.

In her press conference following the victory, the Floridian was asked if she saw herself as a title contender before the tournament.

"Two weeks ago looked a little different," she responded.

It's worth noting that just before her Sunshine Double campaign, Danielle Collins suffered a back injury in the quarterfinals of the ATX Open, which forced her to retire from the tournament mid-match.

"I was coming off a back injury that happened in Austin. I was devastated not to be able to finish out that tournament," Collins said.

Despite the setback, the American competed in Indian Wells, bowing out against eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the second round. She shared crushing behind-the-scenes details of her run in the desert.

"I went to Indian Wells and had multiple days off in a row. I had a few days, not exaggerating, I literally couldn't walk. I was having to have my boyfriend help me a lot.

"It was awful. There were a lot of tears about, oh, my gosh, I have played all these tournaments, I have worked so hard for this, and now we're at Indian Wells and Miami and this is happening, like, why?" Danielle Collins recalled.

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Danielle Collins on battling injury to win Miami Open: "What makes these players the best in the world is they learn how to play around those things"

Danielle Collins pictured with her Miami Open 2024 trophy

Danielle Collins said that her early Indian Wells exit allowed her a few good practices before the 2024 Miami Open. She also noted that her condition improved considerably with the help of physical therapy.

"Luckily with I think the help of the physical therapy and chiropractor we were able to kind of get it under control and make some adjustments too with some of my training and recovery and got it to a place where it was more manageable. After Indian Wells I was able to get a couple good days of practice," Danielle Collins said in the aforementioned press conference.

"I felt pretty confident, but it was still the amount of time that I was practicing on court and the type of drills that we were doing, I was, like, this is going to be hard, going into Miami," she added.

The former World No. 7 lost her opening set of the Miami Open against first-round opponent Bernarda Pera but won her next 14 sets en route the title.

After her comeback win against Pera, she beat Anastasia Potapova, Elina Avanesyan, Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Garcia and Ekaterina Alexandrova to book her place in the title clash.

"When I came out in the first round, I had a tough match against Pera. I was happy to really get through that. But I also did a great job of putting all that fear of, oh, am I doing enough, am I not doing enough, am I too injured, am I too this, too that?" she said.

Collins said that the main takeaway for her was how she overcame the challenges along the way at the Miami Open.

"I think what makes some of these players the best in the world is that they learn how to play around those things.

"That's the thing that I have learned the most this tournament is, okay, it's never going to be 100% and you've got to figure out a way to, even though you have those challenges, work through it and get through it."