Australian Open: Danielle Collins left ‘a little embarrassed’ after mistakenly celebrating victory too early in tiebreak

CNN
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We’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of a match and in the heat of battle, you lose track of match moments and scores.

Unfortunately for American Danielle Collins, her moment where she slipped came during her second round the match on Australian Open Wednesday in an important third set tiebreak.

Playing against Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova, the No. 13 seed engaged in a fierce battle in which she narrowly lost the first set before coming back to win the second.

The final set was a nip-and-tuck between the two, eventually requiring a tiebreak to settle the deciding frame.

Collins led 6-3 and, when Muchova’s forehand sailed out of bounds to give Collins her seventh point, the American dropped her racket in celebration before raising her hands above her head in a “thank you” gesture. .

The only problem is that after rule changes made in the last few years, if a Grand Slam match reaches six games in the final set, the winner will be the first player to win 10 points with an advantage of two or more points – no such Something Collins had forgotten.

After picking up her racket and walking to the net to shake hands with Muchova and the umpire, as is tradition, Collin appeared confused as to why no one was moving.

Last year’s runner-up was told by the umpire that she still had three more points to go before claiming victory, causing Collins to break into a big smile as she went back to serve again.

“I was a little embarrassed,” Collins later admitted during an on-court interview. “I’ve never had to play a tiebreak in the third set of a Grand Slam before.”

“I really thought the match was over. I said to myself, at least you didn’t face the plant. I had to put things in perspective… I’m not really good with scores, so maybe I’ll have to work on it a bit.

Fortunately for Collins, she was able to take the final three points without too many issues, winning 6-7(1-7) 6-2 7-6(10-6) to put her two down this time. allowed to celebrate properly. An hour-55-minute fight.

Kalin is not the first to make a mistake, having both Kaya Kenepi and Zheng Qinwen celebrate early last year, having gone to 10 points in the deciding tiebreak.

Collins will now play No. 22 seed Elina Rybakina in the third round on Friday.