Australian Open: Danielle Collins Bluntly Addresses Her Controversial Moment That Halted Thrilling Match

Insane drama at the Danielle Collins-Destanee Aiava match in the third round of the 2025 AO! This match literally had it all. The American was showered with boos and jeers as soon as she stepped onto the court to play against the home favorite. Although, despite having massive backing from the crowd, Aiava failed to go past the ‘Danimal’ challenger, this 24-year-old did manage to give a tough fight in this epic battle. Danielle Collins, in her signature style, trolled fans who heckled her during the match. However, that wasn’t the only drama in this match!

Collins won the first set by 7-6(4) and then Aiava came back strongly in the second one. However, the Aussie failed to hold on to that momentum in the third set and as a result; she lost the match by 6(4)-7,6-4,2-6. Amid all these, we saw Danielle Collins calling a medical time out to get treatment on her right big toe. She said that it was affecting her faltering serve. Then after this short pause, we saw her win 8 of the next 11 games and book her place in the third round of the 2025. Why did she have that medical timeout exactly? Was it just that injury or a tactic to put Destanee Aiava off from gaining any sort of momentum?

Well, Danielle Collins addressed all these queries and claims during her post-match press conference. She said, “Yeah I mean, of course, they’re going to say that. I mean it was very obvious. I was struggling with getting my legs on my serve. I was missing a lot of serves and I was having to compensate quite a bit because every time I put my foot in flexion I was kind of doing this weird thing with my back leg.” Danielle Collins further added, “I was missing a lot of serves because of it honestly and I was also having a hard time kind of pushing out of the corners and it kind of got to the point that I needed to try to have some aid with it and get some anti-inflammatories.“

What do her numbers say in this match? Well, Danielle Collins hit 6 aces in this match but committed 12 double faults against Aiava! She was really struggling a bit with her serve in this match, but did this injury happened in Melbourne, itself? “It flared up during Adelaide. I haven’t had any pain with it since and all of a sudden I think just from all the pounding, especially on takeoff and trying to put in flexion. I mean like everything you do when you’re walking, you’re putting your foot in flexion. So, I need to have some assistance on it and it was just progressively kind of getting worse and I just really needed it,” said Collins.

Although Destanee Aiava later on mentioned that this nine-minute medical time-out taken by Danielle Collins hadn’t overly affected her, some of the fans stirred a bit of controversy surrounding its timing. Addressing all those claims in the press conference, Danielle Collins further added, “I try to only use the medical timeouts when I’m in pain. I don’t need to play head games with the level that I play at and yeah I felt like it did help me in the end because I did start serving quite a better after that.” 

She also revealed that she got some momentum with her serve after that and was able to push out of the corners and do more running down the court to reach for the balls. Danielle Collins called it a “part of the game!” However, last year there were a few medical timeouts that didn’t go her way.

For example, during the French Open, she was forced to take a medical time-out in her second-round match against Olga Danilovic due to probable neck or shoulder injury. She did come back in action after that, but Collins had to face defeat in that three-set thriller. Then even during the French Open and Paris Olympics, we saw her taking medical timeouts in the middle of two high-intensity matches, but even at that time, she failed to make a strong comeback in the match. This time it was a bit of an exception. 

What were the other controversies in this match against Destanee Aiava and what were Danielle Collins’ reactions to those?

Danielle Collins takes a jibe at the hecklers after an insane drama at the KIA Arena

Danielle Collins’ wasn’t too happy with the reception she got at the KIA Arena. She was seen showcasing her anger and frustration towards the crowd, multiple times during the match. However, the interesting part was her bizarre celebration after the match. Collins was showered with boos from a parochial home crowd as she cupped a hand to her ear before kissing her hand and slapping her backside after her win against the Aussie. 

After the match, she was even seen taking up the mic and sarcastically addressing the crowd saying, “Thank you guys, love ya.” Not only that, apart from her bizarre post-match gestures towards the crowd, Collins was also seen poking fun at them by saying, “Good luck trying to get under the skin of somebody who really doesn’t care. I loved it (fighting the crowd) … I’m going to be out here for two and a half hours and putting up with all these people – I might as well just take the bigger paycheck, right?“

She also added, “One of the greatest things about being a professional athlete is the people that don’t like you and the people that hate you – they actually pay your bills. Every person that’s bought a ticket to come out here and heckle me, or do what they do … it’s all going towards the ‘Danielle Collins Fund.’ So bring it on, I love it.” Next up for Collins is her compatriot, Madison Keys. The Aussie crowd will surely be again at her in the next match as well. Do you think she can overcome all the hurdles and move to the fourth round at the 2025 AO?