American tennis star Danielle Collins would struggle to find a friend in Australia after her antics at Melbourne Park, and now she has revealed she is battling to find love as well.
Collins was repeatedly booed at this year’s Australian Open, first during her fiery win over Destanee Aiava.
She responded to the hostile crowd with taunts, sarcastic kisses and a cheeky backside slap celebration that only intensified the jeers.
Fans continued to boo her in the next round, and she later stirred controversy again by posting photos from the ‘five-star vacation’ she’d bragged about in her post-match interview.
Now the Australian Open villain has revealed she wants to settle down, find a husband and start a family, but is struggling to find a suitable candidate.
That has forced her onto dating apps, she told the Nothing Major podcast.
American tennis star Danielle Collins has opened up about her quest to find a partner
Collins has made no secret of her desire to stand down from tennis and start a family with the right person
Collins claimed that male tennis players had more success attracting partners than the women
‘Most of them I kind of have to put off to the side,’ she said about the flood of DMs she has since received on social media.
‘But there’s been a few that I have responded to, just for fun.
‘I would be lying if I said nothing too serious has come out of this, but it’s kind of like needle in a haystack.
‘It’s such an influx coming in that it’s kind of hard to go through all of it and kind of figure out who’s like a normal person and who’s not.’
Collins said there is a sexist reason why she has been struggling while male tennis players have no issues finding a partner.
‘I feel like it’s different from men and women,’ she said.
‘I feel like when you’re successful as a guy, the amount of people that kind of flock to you is like infinite.
‘You have a lot more options when you’re successful as a guy.
Collins became a pantomime villain at the Australian Open when she mocked the crowd at Melbourne Park
Collins beat local hope Destanee Aiava and fired back at the crowd for booing her after the match
‘But like, as a woman, when you start to become more successful, it kind of narrows down the dating pool by a lot.
‘And I feel like men can feel intimidated sometimes by successful chicks. I don’t know why that is, but, I feel that’s definitely valid for me and a lot of my friends.
‘I think it takes a special person to want to date a professional tennis player, male or female, just because we travel so much and our lives revolve around our careers in every aspect.
‘From the time we go to bed to what we eat, training, all of the logistics that go into it.
‘So you really have to be with somebody that is pretty selfless in that way, and understanding that we have a short window to accomplish what we want to accomplish and the goals that we’re working towards.
‘Understand that our lives revolve around working towards those goals.
‘It takes a really big sacrifice from the people that any of us date.’
Collins, 31, recently ended her year-long relationship with biotech executive Bryan Kipp.
She had planned to retire in 2024 to start a family but changed course due to endometriosis.
Collins has even said she’d consider joining The Bachelorette in her search for love.
But she said they would have to crack open the chequebook to get her to travel that path.
‘I feel like if they paid the right amount of cash, I would definitely consider it,’ she said.
‘But to just like go on, and go on for the sake of going on, I think it would be totally out of my comfort zone.
‘I feel like Bachelorette would be too much out of my comfort zone just because I would be really uncomfortable dating or seeing multiple people at once. It would kind of like freak me out.
‘I feel like it kind of gets raunchy on that show too, and I am definitely like a slow mover.
‘I probably in some ways could keep it entertaining and then in other ways they would probably tell me you’re going to have to become a little bit more interesting in other ways.’
‘I would really have to think about it and ultimately it would come down to how much money they would pay me.’