Danielle Collins Refuses to Back Down as She Claps Back at ‘Old’ Critic Who Slammed Her Australian Open Antics

Danielle Collins knows how to give it back in an unapologetic manner. She made it evident, on Thursday, during the second round match of the Australian Open against local favorite Destanee Aiava. Throughout this encounter at the KIA Arena, fans kept booing her while cheering for Aiava. But their hopes shattered after Danimal clinched the victory with a scoreline of 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2. Not to mention her ‘in-your-face’ reply to them with a kiss and a pat on her backside. Well, it also brought her some harsh criticism from a popular sportscaster. But Collins had a fitting response ready for him, too. So what did she do?

Following her victory, and getting annoyed by constant jeering from the local fans, Collins told how she will use her prize money for a lavish five-star vacation with her friend and compatriot Coco Vandeweghe. “So thank you guys, thanks for coming out here and supporting us tonight.” She told them, “Thank you, guys, love ya!” Love ya” in a sarcastic tone.

Reacting to this, a Channel 9 sportscaster Tony Jones took a dig at the No. 10 WTA player. “My view is she’s a brat,” he told 3AW Drive on Friday. “When you get people like Danielle Collins who lives this (lavish) lifestyle and then rubs our noses in it…I thought it overstepped the mark.” After noticing Jones’ remarks, Collins didn’t hold back either.

In her IG story, she shared a screenshot of 3AW Drive’s article featuring his comments. Along with that, she wrote, “I love when these old dudes like Tony know the vibe.” It seems Collins doesn’t care about what people think of her conduct in the match against Aiava. She’s going to keep coming up with explosive reactions.

While Jones appears to not like her, fellow players surely do. In fact, several notable figures from the tennis world have come forward in extending their support to the American. Take for example, British star Emma Raducanu. After seeing her response given to the crowd on Thursday, Raducanu was seen ‘following’ Collins on Instagram. And now, her fearless gesture has earned a special praise from GOAT Novak Djokovic!

Danielle Collins earns a big admirer in Novak Djokovic who “loved her response”

A day after Collins mocked the crowd at the KIA Arena, she’s getting a lot of attention. After Novak Djokovic won his third round match on Friday, against Czechia’s Tomas Machac, he sat down for a press conference. In that, Djokovic praised Collins for giving it back to the crowd. He said, “I loved her response. I loved it. Everything she said on the court off the court big fan of Danielle Collins after that.”

Adding more to his admiration for her, he said, “I was before, but now a big fan. I heard some comments from people that she, you know she shouldn’t have said that or that I think she handled it really well I don’t think I would be that polite um, and uh but and I know exactly the feeling so I think she was funny, smart. Big fan of what she did. Big fan(laughs).”

Djokovic’s support to Collins is justified as well, given how much he has to deal with unwanted distraction from the crowd. Take for example, his third round match from Friday. Djokovic was speaking during the post-match interview after defeating Machac 6-1,6-4,6-4. However, he was constantly getting annoyed by a noise.

A fan was yelling at him non-stop. Then Djoker came with a witty yet fitting reply to the heckler and said, “Sorry mate, I’ve a wife. We can have a drink though. Maybe you’ve had a few already. Him and I were going back and forth for quite a while. Actually, I’m happy to have a drink with him now that the match is over. I think we can reflect nicely on what we said to each other during the match (laughs).”

Coming back to Collins’ on-court behavior from her second round match, do you think her response to the crowd was justified? Let us know in the comments below.