American Danielle Collins thanked fans that heckled her during her second-round victory over Destanee Aiava at the Australian Open for “paying my bills”.
The 10th seed cupped her left hand to her ear and blew kisses to the crowd, who booed as she wrapped up a 7-6 4-6 6-2 win over Australian home hope Aiava to reach the third round.
Collins, 31, said she “loved” the hostile atmosphere at Kia Arena and said it motivated her against the world number 195.
“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,” Collins said.
“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”.
Collins said the 290,000 Australian dollars (£147,500) that she will receive for reaching the third round at Melbourne Park would be used on a “five-star trip”.
“Me and my group of girlfriends, we love a five-star vacation so I can guarantee that cheque is going to go towards our next five-star trip – hopefully to the Bahamas,” said Collins, who will face compatriot Madison Keys next.
“We like boats, we like big boats, we like yachts, so we’ll post about it and let you guys know how it goes.”
Collins returned to tennis at the start of 2025 after previously announcing she would retire at the end of the 2024 season.
She continues to deal with endometriosis, which can affect fertility, and told BBC Sport in May that starting a family was “one of her biggest goals outside of tennis”.
(BBC sport)
