Danielle Collins was able to pull out a close win against Kalinskaya in Melbourne and last year's finalist talked to the media after her impressive victory.
Collins hasn't had much success since that
Australian Open as the American continues to deal with multiple injuries. She's navigating it quite well but had a scare in the first set of this match with her knee. She referenced it after the match while talking about the gruelling match that ended with her win:
“I played a couple of these matches recently and didn’t pull out the
win in those. Anytime you’re on the court
playing three hour matches, you especially want to win – putting in that
much effort. I just needed to push through the hurdle a little bit.
Definitely had a scare there in the first set with an injury so, not
what you’re wanting to kind of be dealing with in the first round of a
tournament, I was able to work through it and the physios were able to
really help me.”
She also expanded up her knee admitting that she does feel worried due to a long history of injuries:
“The adrenaline gets going too and so I think you kind of ignore it a lot but look, I’ve had a meniscus tear and I’ve had a cartilage tear in this knee, so it’s something when I start feeling it I get a little bit worried,” she said. I just kind of had to play through it a bit. But I do think that physios helped a lot and made a really big difference. So I’m so grateful for them.”