"You have to develop a thick skin"- Danielle Collins reveals how she got "spunky" attitude playing "old hags" in public parks during early tennis days

Danielle Collins has had her fair share of on-court challenges, including an aggressive crowd and disagreements with opponents. However, it's the American's unique way of handling such high-pressure situations that makes her stand out from the rest.

In a podcast with journalist Josh Smith, the World No. 66 was asked about some of the challenges that she had faced and how they helped her develop a strong mindset. Collins reflected on some of her childhood memories and responded:

"I feel like through life I have gone through different seasons and challenges and all of them have been uniquely different from each other. But you know I think I developed a spunkiness at a young age partly because I grew up playing in the public parks and a lot of the people that I played with were from a small area of Florida," she said (19.22 onwards).

She recounted her experiences playing in public parks in her early tennis days since her parents couldn't afford to send her to an academy at the time.

"Often times they [her parents] would take me to the parks and I would play with city league players and scrap it out against these older guys who were you know smoking cigarettes and drinking beers on changeovers and you know, when you're dealing with these old hags that just scrap the way through their tennis, you develop a thick skin," she added.

She believed her experiences helped her look at the lighter side of things even when the situation seemed tense.

"And I think that's where I learnt how to poke fun at people and also be able to take it myself, right? And be able to laugh at myself. But yeah, I felt like I kind of grew up in this scrappy tennis park like, situation and it was competitive and I think that's where a lot of my fire and spunkiness comes from as playing against those people who talk a lot of crap, you know."

Collins was last seen on court at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, where she lost to Iga Swiatek in the third round. She is next likely to be seen competing at the Washington Open.

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Danielle Collins had a unique way of handling the crowd at the Australian Open 2025

Danielle Collins at the 2025 Australian Open. Image: Getty

Danielle Collins defeated qualifier Destanee Aiava in the second round of the 2025 Australian Open in January. However, she faced a tough crowd that was rooting for the home-hope throughout the 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2 see-saw of a match.

After the match, Collins blew kisses and held her hand to her ear in response to a booing crowd. Collins was later congratulated by the on-court interviewer, but the former couldn't respond over the loud jeers from the audience. She took the microphone and tackled the situation head-on.

"I was thinking during the match ... as long as I’m out here, I might as well take that big fat check. Coco (Vandeweghe) and I love, we love a good five-star vacation. So part of that check is going to go towards that. So thank you guys, thanks for coming out here and supporting us tonight," - Danielle Collins said during her on-court interview at the Australian Open.

Danielle Collins was later defeated by the eventual champion Madison Keys in the third round of the hardcourt Major.

Edited by Anisha Chatterjee