'It can be negative': Danielle Collins responds to friend CoCo Vandeweghe after she bet against her at Rome Open

America’s Danielle Collins came out with an interesting response to her friend CoCo Vandeweghe after figuring out that she bet against her in the match against Poland’s Iga Swiatek at the Rome Open. The 31-year-old secured one of the biggest wins of her career as she defeated the defending champion and the reigning world number two in the third-round contest of the ongoing WTA event in the Italian capital with a score of 6-1, 7-5.

Collins spoke with the Tennis Channel after the match, where she was informed that her friend Vandeweghe bet against her in the match. Starting the conversation, Vandeweghe defended her action and explained the reason behind betting against her friend. “Danielle, I have to defend myself,” she said. “I know you can hear me and I knew he (Prakash Amritraj) was going to throw me under the bus. But, you know, bet mgm was going one way and I had to stick with BET MGM. But that is the last time I stick with BET MGM, because DC you got to stop being so subdued and give us the real skinny on why you just dismantled Iga.”

In response to that, Collins, who will now face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the round of 16, stated that her focus has been trying to focus on what she can do right on the court, and that’s what she would continue to do in the upcoming matches as well.

“I've been trying to go on court and get focused on my game plan and try to sometimes work on, you know, not too many highs, not too many lows,” she said. “Because I can be a bit of a perfectionist. And sometimes, being a perfectionist and having that self-reflection, I think is really good and ultimately gets us to, you know, competing at the highest level. But it can also be, you know, too much for us to handle sometimes. And, you know, when you go too far the other way with that, it can be negative. So I've been working on just trying to stay positive, stay pretty chill. I've been doing a lot of like pilates and yoga stuff. So I feel like that's probably like making me change my mindset a little bit, just like, yeah, trying to be more chill out there.”