American tennis players Danielle Collins and Steve Johnson announce retirement

Danielle Collins (Google Images)

Two American tennis players have announced retirement news. According to Chris Oddo of Tennis Now, Olympic bronze medalist Steve Johnson of Orange, California declared his retirement from men’s professional tennis on Monday following a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 loss in the first round of qualifying for Indian Wells. Then, according to Anurag Gusain of Essentially Sports on Tuesday, it was reported that 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Florida has decided to retire from women’s professional tennis at the end of 2024. Johnson retired at the age of 34 and Collins will be retiring at the age of 30.

Johnson’s claim to fame was winning the bronze medal match in men’s doubles at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Johnson teamed up with Jack Sock of Lincoln, Nebraska. They defeated the Canadian duo of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-4.

Johnson won four ATP singles events. He defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 7-6, 7-5 in the final of Nottingham in 2016, defeated Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the final of the 2017 United States Clay Court Championships in Houston, defeated Tennys Sandgren of the United States 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 in the final of the 2018 United States Clay Court Championship, and Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the final of the 2018 Hall of Fame Tennis Championship in Newport, Rhode Island.

Collins’s grand slam final loss at the Australian Open two years ago came to Australia’s own Ashleigh Barty. There Barty won 6-3, 7-6. Collins won two WTA tournaments. She defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the 2021 Palermo Ladies Open in Italy and Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 in the final of the 2021 Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California.