Danielle Collins, one of the most successful tennis players to come out of the college system, has shown her support for fellow players who make the transition from NCAA tennis to the professional tour. Although the ATP and WTA Tours see a lot of players still in college, they run one crucial risk — losing the prize money from tournaments.
According to the rules at the moment, an NCAA player cannot earn more than $10,000 in a calendar year. This is calculated after the expenses of the player in the year are deducted, but on most occasions, players still end up missing out on large chunks of their hard-earned money.
Case-in-point: Oliver Tarvet, currently playing for San Diego in the NCAA, has reached the second round at Wimbledon 2025. The prize money for a player reaching the second round at SW19 is £99,000. However, if he wants to continue playing in the college division, Tarvet will have to forego a significant portion of that money.
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Asked about the same in her press conference at Wimbledon, Collins, who won the NCAA singles title twice for the University of Virginia, was rather shocked. The American hoped some kind of solution could be reached in the future, at least to help college players set up for life.
“I thought that there was going to be some type of change, or maybe it was just my assumption,” Collins said. “It’s kind of interesting that you can’t accept (prize money). I wish that there was some type of solution."
Danielle Collins floated the idea of a type of retirement fund for NCAA players, saying:
“If the concern is that the player is accepting money as a professional athlete and therefore they are professional athletes, maybe there’s a way that there can be a fair portion that goes towards a 401K or some type of retirement fund that you’re not able to touch until you’re 65."
The former Australian Open finalist, who has earned more than $600,000 in prize money on the singles tour so far, insisted that all athletes have the right to get the benefits for their success, hoping that some out-of-the-box idea will help solve this issue soon.
“Any athlete should be put in a position to get set up for success. I feel like there’s a solution to these kinds of things. I think sometimes it just requires people to think a little bit outside of the box. That would be kind of cool if they could put it into something like a retirement fund," Danielle Collins said.
“Then that way it’s not being spent irresponsibly but helps a college athlete that’s worked really hard to look out for their future," she added.
Danielle Collins: "College gives you more time to grow and develop"
At the press conference, Danielle Collins also spoke about how college players benefit from the system, noting that it helped them get more time to develop mentally than players going straight to the pro tours.
"I feel like there are so many players now that are kind of going through the college tennis system and are doing really well,” Collins said.
“I feel like college gives you a little bit more time to kind of grow and develop. Not necessarily physically, but I think mentally, and that’s the most important thing. I don’t think a lot of people are equipped to deal with the stress and pressure that comes along with playing a professional sport, especially an individual one,” she added.
Danielle Collins herself has reached the second round at Wimbledon, where she will next take on Veronika Erjavec.
