Danielle Collins: American enjoys being pantomime villain after beating home hope Destanee Aiava at Australian Open | Tennis news
Danielle Collins says the best thing about being a professional athlete is having the people who make fun of her pay the bills and said the abuse helped her win her second-round match at the Australian Open.
The 31-year-old was seen blowing kisses to the Melbourne Park crowd and holding a hand to her ear after beating Australian qualifier Destanee Aiava 7-6 4-6 6-2 in the women’s singles.
Collins postponed her retirement from tennis due to ‘fertility issues’ caused by endometriosis at the end of last season, he is the 10th holder of the tournament.
“One of the biggest things about being a professional athlete is the people who don’t like you and the people who hate you, they actually pay your bills,” Collins said.
“It’s a cool concept. Obviously, my professional career won’t last forever. So I remind myself every day when I have things like that, they pay my bills.
“Every single person that bought a ticket to come here and make fun of me or do what they do, it all goes to the Danielle Collins fund.
“Me and my group of girlfriends love a five star vacation. I guarantee the check will go towards our next five star trip, hopefully to the Bahamas.
“We love big ships, we love yachts. We’ll post about it and let you know how it goes.”
Collins: The audience motivates me even more
After winning in two hours and 25 minutes over Aiava, the last Australian woman left in the draw, Collins mouthed to the crowd: “How about that?”.
In the press conference that followed, she talked about getting motivation from the partisan crowd at the Kia Arena, which solidly supported Aiava throughout the game.
“I loved it. I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Collins added.
“I like to play in a crowd that has energy, regardless of which side they are on.
“It just motivates me even more. So that’s a good thing, especially when I’m not playing that well.
“So I think in the end it really helped me, helped me focus more, and sometimes challenged me and pushed me through the finish line.
“And I was very happy when I finally got the momentum going. I said, ‘Well, if I’m going to be out there for two and a half hours, putting up with all these people, I might as well just get paid more, right?’ I was super happy to do it.”
Collins rejects claims of a tactical medical timeout
Collins was forced to take a medical time-out when her opponent was serving for the set at 5-2 and dismissed insinuations that it was because of Aiava’s refusal.
“Of course they’re going to say that. It was very obvious that I was struggling to set my feet on my serve,” said Collins, who was taking medication during the timeout.
“I was missing a lot of serves. I had to make up quite a bit because every time I put my foot in flexion, I was doing this weird thing with my back foot.
“Honestly, I missed a lot of serves because of that. I also had a hard time pushing from the corner.
“It got to the point where I needed to have some help with it and get some anti-inflammatories. It flared up during Adelaide.
“I haven’t had any pain since then and all of a sudden, I think I needed help with all that pounding. It just gradually got worse.”
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