After defeating Destanee Aiava in the second round of the Australian Open, American Danielle Collins thanked the booing fans for covering her expenses.
As she defeated Australian home hope Aiava 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 to advance to the third round, the 10th seed put her left hand to her ear and blew kisses to the jeering audience.
Collins claimed that she was inspired to fight the world number 195 by the hostile environment at Kia Arena.
She talked about it after the match and said: “One of the greatest things about being a professional athlete is that the people that don’t like you and the people that hate you, they actually pay your bills. My professional career is not going to last forever, so I just remind myself every day when I have that kind of stuff [negative crowd reactions] they’re paying my bills. Every person that has bought a ticket to come out here and heckle me or do what they do, it’s all going towards the Danielle Collins fund.”
After this statement, fans laughed at Collins, who made fun of Australian fans after defeating their home favorite, Aiava. One fan wrote: “Wow—she’s really riling up the crowd.”
Another commented: “It’s what pays the bills. lol.”
One weighed in: “This is peak tennis.”
Another wrote: “Compare her reaction to Jannik Sinner’s in a very similar situation. That’s the difference between him having 2 grand slam titles at 23 and her having 0 at age 31.”
Collins at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2025
Currently ranked no.
11, Collins has achieved a composed 2-1 match record in 2025. The American is currently playing at the Australian Open where she managed to beat the world no.138 Daria Snigur 7-6(4) 6-3 and the world no.195 Destanee Aiava 7-6(4) 4-6 6-2.Danielle Collins will take on the world no.14 Madison Keys in the 3rd round on Saturday at 10:00 pm on Rod Laver Arena. Their actual record is 2-1
for Keys.Collins won 4 titles in her career: 2 on hard courts and 2 on clay courts. (See the list of her titles)
Destanee Aiava in 2025
At the moment ranked no.195, Aiava played her last match on the 16th of January when she was overcome by world no.11 Danielle Collins 7-6(4) 4-6 6-2 in the 2nd round of the Australian Open (draw).
At present, during this year Aiava owns a 4-1 match record.
Destanee Aiava will compete against the world no.147 Maddison Inglis in the final. Their current head to head is 5-5.
Danielle Collins and Destanee Aiava played each other just on 1 occasion. Their current record is 1-0 for Collins. When they played, Danielle Collins won 7-6(4) 4-6 6-2 in the 2nd round in Melbourne (Australian Open) on the 16th of January 2025.
Here are the highlights.