Danielle Collins beat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of the Canadian Open to set up a second-round clash against her compatriot Coco Gauff.
Gauff and all the other seeds in the women’s draw received byes in the first round, and Canadian fans will be excited to watch the World No. 2 take to the court on Tuesday. After her first-round victory, Collins spoke about her compatriot in her post-game on-court interview.
‘We Are Going To Bring That Feistiness’ — Danielle Collins Speaks About Canadian Open Clash Against Coco Gauff
When asked about facing Gauff in the second round, Collins said:
“We are going to bring the energy, we are going to bring that feistiness, right? We’re going to go out and just battle. Coco’s a good friend of mine and someone that I have had my best memories being on teams with. So yeah, we are going to have to go out there and battle.”
Collins was also quizzed about her Round 1 victory and spoke about how Tomova gave her an extremely tough fight despite the scoreline. The American said:
“She didn’t give up. It’s hard to beat somebody that doesn’t give up. She was hitting some hard-hitting shots and trying to move me around, and she was doing a really good job, so I had to counter it.”
Tomova was very closely matched against the American, but unlike her opponent, she wasn’t able to take advantage of crucial moments in the game. Collins converted three of her four breakpoint opportunities, while the Bulgarian converted just one of her 11 breakpoint chances, which proved to be one of the big reasons for her loss.
When the interviewer asked Collins about how fans who saw her for the first time would have noticed that she does not take all of her breaks and plays at a quick pace, the American said, “I have got to motor. So sometimes when I sit down for too long, you know, I am getting old, I am sure some people here can relate to that, right? And, you sit down too long and you are not getting back up. So yeah, just have to try to stay on my toes.
Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins’ Recent Results
Gauff came into Wimbledon as the second seed and was considered one of the title favourites. However, she suffered a shock first-round straight-sets defeat to Dayana Yastremska.
Collins made the third round at Wimbledon, where she lost 2-6, 3-6 to the eventual champion Iga Świątek . She competed at the Citi DC Open last week, losing 5-7, 4-6 to eighth seed Magda Linette in the first round.
