By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, January 15, 2024

A timeless tennis adage advises: What you don't know can hurt you.

An Australian Open opener reminded us familiarity produces pain, too.

More: Swiatek Rises to Kenin Challenge

Dangerous Danielle Collins surged through six straight games derailing Angelique Kerber’s long-awaited Australian Open comeback with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 triumph.

Contesting her 25th major main draw, Collins cracked 46 winners—33 more than Kerber—to set up a second-round showdown vs. world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

One of Collins' biggest career wins was a 6-4, 6-1 stomping of Swiatek in the 2022 Australian Open semifinals. Collins went on to bow to Aussie Ash Barty in the 2022 final.

Earlier, Swiatek stopped 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 7-6(2), 6-2 in a rematch of the 2020 Roland Garros final.

"Well, for sure I can't say that I have easy draw here," Swiatek said. "I'll try to do my best. Danielle is a really good player. We played really tight matches. On the other hand our last match was pretty -- I mean, from the score, I had it under control. We'll see.

"Every match is different. I'm not going to anticipate anything. I'm just going to be ready and we'll see."

The Kerber-Collins clash was the fifth time in Open Era history that two former AO finalists met in the Melbourne first round.

The 2016 AO champion Kerber was contesting her first major match since giving birth to her daughter, Liana, last February.

The conundrum Kerber faces against Collins is her preferred patterns—sliding her lefty slice serve on the ad side and curling crosscourt forehands—play right into Collins’ strength, which is battering ram backhand.

In their lone prior AO meeting five years ago, Collins annihilated the second-seeded Kerber, 6-0, 6-2, charging into her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2019 Australian Open.

Today, Collins was hammering her drives from the outset.



The 62nd-ranked Collins fired a forehand winner down the line to break for 4-2.

Two games later, Collins broke again to take a one-set lead. In the second event of her comeback, Kerber was sometimes struggling to generate pace on the serve and Collins made her pay converting seven of 19 break points in the match.

Collins quadrupled Kerber’s winner output—16 to 4—in the 34-minute opening set.

Retooling her game in the second set, Kerber began hitting her forehand down the line and playing deep down the middle more often. Kerber hit a deep forehand drive right down the middle, rattling out a Collins error to break in the opening game of the second set.

That fast second-set start propelled Kerber, who was hitting with more precision cruising through four consecutive games in the set.

Collins sailed her backhand as Kerber broke to snatch the second set and force a decider after one hour, 22 minutes. Collins committed 17 errors to six for Kerber in set.

The 30-year-old Collins dispensed dominance in the decider.

Stepping inside the baseline, Collins scalded a forehand winner down the line breaking for a 2-1 third-set lead. Collins kicked a wide serve coaxing a netted return to back up the break at 30 for a 3-1 lead.

Even when Kerber amped up her service speed, as she did in the fifth game, Collins was timing the ball effectively. Punishing a return down the line, Collins sprang to the center then pounded a diagonal forehand winner scoring her sixth break for a 4-1 final-set lead.

Collins broke at 15 to close and improve her AO record to 16-5.



After dispatching a three-time Grand Slam champion in Kerber, Collins will face four-time major champion Swiatek next and try to avenge some recent thrashings.

The Florida-born baseliner stomped Swiatek 6-4, 6-1 in the 2022 AO semifinals. Swiatek hasn’t forgotten that lopsided loss and has demolished Collins in recent matches, including a 6-0, 6-1 Doha beatdown last February and a 6-1, 6-0 Cincinnati crusher. In between those two matches, Collins pushed Swiatek to three sets in a Montreal loss.