Danielle Collins walks onto court. (Image: Eurosport.)
There was another hostile reception for Danielle Collins as she walked out onto court for her third-round match with Madison Keys at the . The American was again loudly jeered, and responded by smiling and waving.
During her second-round victory over home favourite Destanee Aiava, Collins was heckled by the crowd as she prevailed 7-6 4-6 6-2.
She hit back by cupping her ear and blowing kisses towards the stand, and later thanked those in attendance for “paying my bills.”
On Eurosport, pundit Laura Robson noted her latest reaction, saying: “She got booed quite loudly but I think if anything that’s going to spur her on even more.
“Danielle loves it. I think she almost pre-empted it and gave it one of the ‘get louder’ motions as she came out.”
Tim Henman added: “She’s had a chuckle about it.” But in her opening service game, the crowd appeared intent on letting Collins know she was in for another tough night, sarcastically cheering when she got a first serve in.
Danielle Collins receives a serenade of boos as she enters Rod Laver Arena. ????????????
— Eurosport (@eurosport)
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Despite appearing unaffected at the star of the game, it was a shaky start from the 31-year-old as she was broken early on. And her winning points in the opening stages were met with tame, almost begrudging applause with the crowd clearly backing Keys more.
The 10th seed has so far relished being the pantomime villian down under, and after her win over Aiava, appeared to deliberately stoke the fires with Australian fans. “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,” she said.
“My professional career is not going to last forever so I just remind myself every day when I have that kind of stuff – 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.”
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