Source : ABC NEWS
Vacation time has come a little earlier than Danielle Collins would have liked.
Just days after the polarising American taunted the crowd at Melbourne Park after beating local favourite, the crowd had the last laugh as the 10th seed lost to compatriot Madison Keys, 6-4, 6-4.
There was real anticipation in the air that Collins may face a night where she was booed mercilessly from start to finish as the crowd filtered back into Rod Laver Arena after watching men’s top seed Jannik Sinner beat Marcos Giron.
As the crowd shuffled around to get a breather, the in-arena announcer mentioned Collins being up next, an announcement which was met with a chorus of boos.
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The official player entrances came next and Keys was cheered like she was prime Ash Barty walking out for the women’s final three years ago.
Collins walked out to some hearty boos, and waved while grinning from ear to ear. This was the atmosphere she wanted, or so she thought.
While Collins has repeatedly said she loves being the villain, she is still human and did not look comfortable at all in her opening service game.
The 31-year-old immediately had a double fault, as the crowd delighted in every serve that landed wide of the mark or lashed into the net.
Keys has probably never been cheered like this at Melbourne Park, and probably won’t ever again, and she took full advantage of her early break.
Madison Keys was cheered on like a hometown hero by the crowd in attendance at Rod Laver Arena. (Getty Images: Robert Prange)
The crowd had the real energy of a local football crowd at times, as some punters simply laughed when Collins made an error.
Collins somewhat surprisingly found her own allies, a boisterous group of supporters seated directly behind her players’ box who cheered her every point. Even when she erred, they could be heard yelling, “Love the idea, Danielle”.
Focusing on the antics in the stands would not do either of these women justice, because they both played some excellent tennis.
After losing the first set, Collins came out and broke Keys to start the second, but almost immediately gave it right back before being broken herself.
She fought a knee issue towards the end of the second set which ultimately proved to be the death knell in her comeback attempt.
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Despite being booed after her loss to Keys, Collins remained adamant she had not lost much overall despite becoming the lightning rod for criticism over the last few days.
“I think that six different sponsorship opportunities come up this tournament alone,” she told reporters at Melbourne Park after the loss. “That’s a great signal for me.
“Obviously, like I said, every fan contributes to that. It’s been a real blessing.”
There was a real chance Collins’s clash against Keys could have ended in some ugly scenes, but to the crowd’s credit, they were largely well-behaved, save for a few sporadic hecklers.
“The biggest thing is that nobody got hurt,” Collins said.
“Maybe some feelings got hurt or things were taken personally, and they probably shouldn’t have been taken personally by the crowd.
“I feel like people take life way too seriously sometimes. I think in our sport, it’s like somebody was telling me that the average age of people watching and the fans of tennis is, like, 65.
“We need to kind of bring some entertainment to the game. I think we can try to make jokes and laugh.
“I don’t have a big ego when it comes to this. Honestly, I don’t care what’s written about me. I don’t care, like, what some guy living in his basement is writing on the internet.
“You know what I mean? I’m just trying to have fun. I’m just trying to enjoy my life and have fun with it.”
Collins revealed that some of her friends had also joined in on the banter since her celebration following the win over Destanee Aiava.
“All my friends on tour … they knew I was just being me and trying to make humour of the situation,” she said.
“Then I had a lot of my friends be, like, ‘Well, am I getting invited on the yacht?’. Yeah, a lot of the girls on tour were, like, ‘Well, you’re inviting me, right?’. That’s all that matters.
“At the end of the day you can’t please everybody. The most important thing is your friends and family and what they think.
“Nobody got hurt. That’s the main thing. This is sports. I don’t think the banter is necessarily a terrible thing.”
Collins was criticised for bragging about her wealth, particularly after facing a lower-ranked opponent like Aiava who isn’t in the same earning bracket.
She insisted she was not trying to be disrespectful with her celebration and the comments which followed.
“I never want to hurt someone’s feelings or be disrespectful to someone that I’m competing against, especially the people that I really respect,” she said.
“I’m not perfect. I’m not a perfect person, but I think I definitely in the past used to think about, ‘Oh, if I do this, like this person might not like me, or if I do that. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes or I don’t want to share too much about my life because I don’t want to make anybody else feel like, you know, sad about theirs’.
“I think maybe with age comes this attitude of, like, ‘This is it, we’re going to be ourselves’.
“I’m going to accept who I am, and I’m going to just, like, go for it.
“I think that’s something I’m really proud of myself is I just have gotten to the point where I really don’t care anymore about what people who aren’t important to me think.”
