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Ali Collins: Dunblane Diamond

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#1 · (Edited)
Ali Collins



DOB: 27 May 2000
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Plays: Right-handed
Year-end junior ranking 2016: 123
Clothing: Asics
Racquet: Wilson
Twitter: @alicol27
Instagram: alicollins27

Ali grew up in Dunblane, Scotland, the same town where Andy and Jamie Murray hail from. Like the Murrays she attended Dunblane Primary School and did training at the Scottish National Tennis Centre at Stirling University.

Ali has been mentored in her development by Judy Murray. Judy introduced her to Emilio Sanchez and, after securing funding, Ali was able to travel to train at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Naples, Florida. In 2016 Judy said the following of Ali:

"Ali is a very promising junior. I call her Dunblane's third finest tennis player.

"She is a world class volleyer and has great hand skills which allow her to mix the pace, spin and depth of the ball, so she plays with huge variety and that is quite hard to find in the women's game these days."

Her best results so far have come in Grade 2 and a few Grade 1 tournaments. Of note was the 2016 Asuncion Bowl, Paraguay G1 where she reached the quarter-finals in singles and semi-finals in doubles partnering Victoria Emma. Her most regular doubles partner is fellow Brit, Fran Jones.

Titles
Singles:
Copa Sultana-Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 2015 - Grade 4
Doubles:
Panama Bowl, Panama 2015 - Grade 4 (with Fran Jones)
Copenhagen Winter Cup, Denmark 2015 - Grade 4 (with Fran Jones)
Nike Junior International Edinburgh, UK 2014 - Grade 5 (with Alexandra Hunter)

During 2016 Ali has concentrated on Grade 2 and above tournaments. As of writing this she is on the verge of breaking into the Top 100 in the junior rankings.

In junior slams she played Wimbledon 2015, losing to eventual champion Sofya Zhuk in round 1 and Wimbledon 2016, losing to Top 10 player Sofia Kenin in round 1.

Ali has represented Great Britain in Junior Fed Cup.

Wimbledon 2015






Wimbledon 2016


Junior Fed Cup 2015 (with Jodie Burrage and Katie Swan)




At Academia Sanchez-Casal


With Andy Murray





 
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11
#2 ·
Ali is currently at a career high of #101.

She played the AO warm-up in Traralgon reaching R2 in singles (lost to Gabriella Da Silva Fick) and QF in doubles.

She was top seed in AO Jnr qualies:

R1 Bye
R2 def. Nidhi Surapaneni 6-1 6-0

Aussie Open 2017 main draw:

(10) Mai Hontama (JPN) v Nicole Mossmer (USA)
Mihika Yadav (IND) v (Q) Ali Collins (GBR)
(Q) Ekaterina Vishnevskaya (RUS) v (wc) Lisa Mays (AUS)
(8) Iga Swiatek (POL) v Pei Hsuan Chen (TPE)

Not a bad opening round. Yadav is ranked 76.
 
#6 ·
Mixed fortunes for Ali yesterday.

R1: M. Yadav def. A. Collins 6-3 6-4

I saw bits of it but trying to watch about three other matches at once. I can see where Murray comparisons might come in. Her first serve is decent when it goes in. She's got a good backhand slice. Maybe needs to work on her return of serve to get to Murray standards. :lol:

Unfortunately she didn't get enough 1st serves in and DFed 11 times. It meant she put herself under a lot of pressure. I wonder if she was hampered quite a bit by a heavy strapping she had on her right elbow.

She actually went a break up at the start of the second set but unable to keep hold of it. Yadav quite a solid game off the ground.












Better news in doubles:
R1: Collins/Niemeier def. [8] Boskovic/Rybakina 6-4 6-2 :yeah:

Very solid behind their own serves and saved 4 of 5 BPs against them. Broke their opponents four times. A good win!
 
#11 ·
QF: [3] Andreescu/Branstine def. Collins/Niemeier 6-4 1-6 10-3

Ooh, shame about this result. All the momentum was with Ali and Jule at the end of the second set. But then they couldn't get into the match tiebreak at all. Great effort though and a good tournament for Ali. She's slowly making progress.

She'll gain a few ranking points for this doubles QF. Not sure whether it will be enough to finally put her into the Top 100 but she'll be close. She dropped a couple of places to #103 this week as a couple of players leapfrogged her.
 
#26 ·
$15k Edgbaston, GB qualies (hard, indoor)

[4] Maia Lumsden v Ella Taylor
(wc) Ali Collins v [15] Romy Koelzer

25 y.o. Koelzer is at a career high of #902. She got into Glasgow MD this week as a lucky loser and won a round before defeat to another qualifier ranked lower than herself. Ali is 2-3 for the year so far (incl. juniors). This first round isn't awful so hopefully she can make something happen.
 
#28 ·
I'm surprised she went into these British events straight after flying back from Australia. Just the jet lag would be enough to put you off your game I would have thought. Maybe she's picked up a slight injury?

She played Traralgon, AO qualies, Aussie Open, straight back to Glasgow and then planning to play Edgbaston.

I guess she didn't want to miss Glasgow but should probably have taken a week off like Jodie.
 
#32 ·
Benicarlo, Spain Grade 2 (clay, outdoor)

[7] Malene Helgo (NOR) v Anastasia Tikhonova (RUS)
Axana Mareen (BEL) v (Q) Avelina Sayfetdinova (RUS)
Dalila Said (ESP) v Ali Collins (GBR)
Shaline-Doreen Pipa (GER) v [3] Alina Charaeva (RUS)

Ali hasn't played since Glasgow at the end of January. I don't know if she's been injured because she failed to appear at that Spanish event a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps she's doing exams as well.

First round looks okay. Said is ranked about 70 places below Ali.
 
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