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Danielle Collins has been on a spree of getting into a heated interaction with the crowd during her matches. The American's matches have been entertaining and she put on another show during her 2024 Italian Open quarterfinal against Victoria Azarenka.
13th-seed Collins has been on a great run of form in the Italian Open this year. She began her campaign with a win over Anna Blinkova as the latter retired from the match after Collins won the first set 6-4.
In the third round, she defeated 22nd-seed Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-3 and followed it up with another comfortable win in the fourth round over Irina-Camelia Begu 6-0, 6-3.
She faced 24th-seed Azarenka in Rome in the quarterfinal on May 15. The American player had several dramatic moments during the match.
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When Azarenka was leading 2-1 in the first set, Collins felt the cameraman was too close to her bench. She asked him to move back. Watch the video of her interaction with the cameraman below:
When Collins took the lead 5-3 in the first set, she faced two break points going down 15-40. Collins missed her first serve at this crucial juncture and fans made a noise straight after. Collins confronted them by shouting:
''What? WHAT??''
Watch the video of Collins getting frustrated by the noise from the crowd:
In another dramatic incident, Collins sarcastically gestured and spoke to the crowd after she shanked a shot in the first game of the second set.
As soon as she earned the winning point of the match, Collins blew a kiss to the crowd on center court.
Collins previously blew a sarcastic kiss toward a hostile crowd in Miami. She even confronted a heckler in the crowd during the 2024 Madrid Open.
Danielle Collins sets up semifinal showdown against Aryna Sabalenka at the Italian Open 2024
Danielle Collins defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3 to set up a semifinal showdown against Aryna Sabalenka at the 2024 Italian Open.
Collins is yet to lose a set in this tournament. She was 4-1 up in the second set and was close to going 5-1 up before Azarenka tried to crawl back into the game. The Belarusian made it 4-3 but could not stop Collins from bagging the set.
“It feels amazing. This has become one of my favorite tournaments, Rome is one of my favorite cities in the world so to have as much support as I’ve been having, super-excited to be in the semi-finals,” Collins said during the post-match interview. (via tennismajors.com)
The 30-year-old has already announced that she will be retiring at the end of the season. However, she is witnessing a fantastic run of form with 19 wins in her last 20 games. She will go up against Sabalenka on Thursday, May 16.
