American Danielle Collins ousted two-time U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka on Tuesday night in the first round of the final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season.
Collins, the No. 19 seed in the event, defeated Osaka 7-6 (6), 6-3 at Flushing Meadows, snapping a three-match losing streak against her. The match finished just after midnight. Collin only had one ace but put together six points in a row against Osaka and won three games in a row at one point.
“When you lose to someone three times, you get a lot of information on what you can do better,” Collins said, “With Naomi being the player that she is, she definitely whooped me the last time. I just had to learn from that and make adjustments and I think I did that.”
Osaka, who is also battling a bad back, had a 3-0 lead in the first set before Collins clawed her way back. Eleven of her winners came by using her backhand.
“I got lucky in some big moments,” she added. “But I was working really hard for the points. She wasn’t giving me a ton much free ones. Really overall I think it was a solid match, high level of tennis from both of us.”
saka attributed her loss to overthinking on the court.
“I’m the type of person that thinks a lot, to the point where I overthink. Sometimes when I play matches, I have to tell myself to stop thinking, just go more on instinct,” she said. “I feel like I just have to chill a little bit, because there’s a lot of like random chaos in my head right now.”
Collins only has two WTA singles titles in her career and has never made it further than the third round of the U.S. Open. She was runner-up at the Australian Open in January.