Danielle Collins, World TeamTennis clash on COVID-19 protocol breach

Danielle Collins and World TeamTennis are at odds about her leaving The Greenbrier, the resort where the 2020 WTT season is being played, which led to her being removed from the team competition for a breach of COVID-19 safety protocols.

Collins said her two-hour trip to Charlottesville, Va., where she played college tennis before joining the WTA Tour, was for supplements for her rheumatoid arthritis. She added she was unaware players were not allowed to leave the resort.

"There was a waiver that I signed that was specific to the safety protocols and practices that were to take place during World TeamTennis, and it didn’t have any mention of not leaving the hotel," she told the *New York Times*, saying she also did not know why she "wasn’t able to leave and there’s hundreds of guests staying at the hotel who weren’t with the group."

But CEO Carlos Silva told the newspaper that players were told twice not to leave the site.

"I don’t think Danielle was trying to do anything bad, but... you’ve got to uphold what you are trying to do here so we can keep the other 150 people here safe," he said.

Ryan Loco

The team event is usually played in various cities, but has shifted to one location and implemented restrictions on player activity due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It became known Collins had left when she did not show up for the regular testing required of players.

Silva described upholding the standards as important for the event and for the return of professional sports.

"You can do things right 100 times, but if you do things wrong once, the 100 times gets flushed down the toilet in a second," he said.

Collins had previously criticized Novak Djokovic for expressing doubts about planned restrictions at the US Open, calling for the world No. 1 to play to help other players.

"I don’t feel I intentionally broke a rule so I don’t feel it affects what I said about the US Open," she said.