Defending champion, Jelena Ostapenko has got off to a winning start at the 2025 Adelaide International. She defeated Poland’s Magdalena Frech by 4-6,6-1,6-1 and with this victory. She’s now all set to face America’s Madison Keys in the next round. Ostapenko has always been one of the controversial figures in women’s tennis for various reasons. However, she has garnered support from tennis fans this time around. All thanks to Danielle Collins and her United Cup incident with Iga Swiatek.

On Tuesday, a fan shared a tweet saying, “jelena ostapenko is what danielle collins thinks she is.” Several other fans came out in numbers to share their thoughts on that. What’s the fuss all about, though?

Well, Danielle Collins has been recently running the headlines for his controversial cold handshake with Iga Swiatek before the 2025 United Cup. For those unaware, both these players were involved in a high-octane clash at the Paris Olympics, and during that match, fans witnessed multiple controversial moments. In one instance, the American was seen seemingly annoyed when Swiatek lifted her racquet to stop her from serving. Collins was even heard saying, “Play at the server’s pace!” to Swiatek.

Not only that, Danielle Collins had once even accidentally hit Iga Swiatek on her mid-rib during the play. So, the intensity was quite high in this epic encounter. However, the match was cut short abruptly due to Danielle Collins’ abdominal injury. Iga Swiatek progressed to the next round with a 6-2,2-6,4-1 win over the American, but did the controversy end there? Well, both the players were seen having a long chat at the net after the match. What were they talking about, though?

“I told Iga she didn’t have to be insincere about, you know, my injury. There’s a lot that happens on camera, and there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma and come out and are one way on camera and another way in the locker room. And I just haven’t had the best experience, and I don’t really feel like anybody needs to be insincere. They can be the way that they are. I can accept that, and I don’t need that fakeness,” Collins said in reply. She faced quite a lot of criticism for her reaction towards Iga Swiatek in that match.

Everything looked settled until their recent bizarre handshake moment ahead of the 2025 United Cup final. Even this time, fans weren’t pleased with Collins’ reaction towards the Pole. However, amid this Collins-Swiatek saga, the Latvian tennis star, who is also famous for never being too far away from controversies, received some surprising praise from the fans. What did the fans say, though?

Amidst an ongoing drama, fans picked Jelena Ostapenko over Danielle Collins

Interestingly, things between Danielle Collins and Iga Swiatek didn’t end after the cold handshake. Later on, Collins even shared two IG stories, both revolving around her bizarre handshake with Iga Swiatek. In the first one she captioned, “Didn’t know if you guys noticed this but… New year, same me.” While in the second one, she wrote, “Sometimes I just gotta laugh at myself.” Interestingly, she even seemingly capitalized on the viral handshake by changing her IG profile picture to a close-up of her face.

After seeing all these acts from Danielle Collins, a fan tweeted, “Ostapenko is at least real while Collins is unforgivably cringewothy.” Why did Jelena Ostapenko come into the frame all of a sudden, though? Well, just like Collins, even Ostapenko has been in the middle of several controversial moments in the past.

During the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović accused Jelena Ostapenko of lying about an injury deep in the third set so she could take a timeout and try to break the Aussie’s momentum. After hearing all these accusations, Ostapenko even called Tomljanovic “the worst player on tour.” There have also been some issues with Jelena Ostapenko’s poor line callings in the past as well. However, while drawing a comparison between two controversial figures in women’s tennis, a fan wrote, “Penko is a queen.”

In February 2024, Jelena Ostapenko yet again raised a few eyebrows when she refused to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka in Doha. Instead of offering a handshake, she held out a racquet after the match. Fans accused her of “unprofessional behavior” at that time. However, this time some of the fans were heard saying, “Penko is at least fun and unique.”

Talking about fun, well, Victoria Azarenka once said, “Some of [Ostapenko’s] line callings, I mean, it can be a bit comical … I just think that’s how she is.” In 2023, Jelena Ostapenko faced the wrath of tennis fans for her cold handshake with Elena Rybakina during the Italian. Reports claim they also got engaged in a heat exchange during their SF match. Even her disrespectful comment on Rebecca Marina during the 2022 Viking Classic Birmingham faced quite a few backlashes in the past. She said, “The biggest opponent to me was myself because I played really well until 6-2, 5-1 and she didn’t really do anything.”

Speaking on Collins and Ostapenko, a fan wrote, “Ostapenko is actually funny to be around meanwhile Collins is just a idiot.” While another highlighted Jelena Ostapenko’s heroics at the 2017 French Open. “Jelena has a slam.” Danielle Collins came closer to winning a major title at the 2022 AO, but she was defeated by Ashleigh Barty in the final.