Got bills to pay: Danielle Collins's hilarious reasoning for playing Strasbourg before Roland Garros

WTA
Tuesday, 28 May 2024 at 16:27
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Danielle Collins as ever was in iconic form in speaking to Tennis Channel after she won through against Caroline Dolehide at the 2024 French Open admitting she played Strasbourg as she's got bills to pay.
Collins who is retiring at the end of 2024 said it semi jokingly as she made herself laugh in saying it with one of the main reasonings being that she doesn't get paid to sit around and play practice sets.
A similar reasoning to Casper Ruud who said that those heading to Paris early would end up playing practice sets anyway so playing in a match environment is of course better. It did work out for Collins who reached the final in the WTA 500 losing to close friend and former pen pal Madison Keys. An all-American final and another chance for Collins to strut her stuff.
She was likely quizzed about this though due to the nature of the calendar with Madrid, Rome and then Strasbourg fairly quickly after each other as a result and so little time for players to breathe. But in the case of Collins, she took time off after she won in Charleston anyway so shifted focus onto Europe after that instead of playing Stuttgart.
So compared to others is more likely to be fresh and as she admitted herself, the best preparation is certainly matches over practice. “The best preparation is matches. It was nice that they had a 500-level tournament the week before a Slam. And I got some great matches in,” the American told Tennis Channel after winning her first match at the French Open.
“I kind of felt like that was going to be the best practice for me so it was like a no-brainer, I was like alright.”
She continued laughing with an iconic retort. “I thought about not playing for a second then I was like ah, you’re going to get bored. Hey, I gotta say too, I gotta keep it real here. I got bills to pay, alright? I got bills to pay. And practice weeks you’re not making any money, tournament weeks you’re bringing in the cheques."
"Obviously I have a lot of matches under my belt at this point, and I've played a ton of hours on the clay courts. So, yeah, it's a good thing. I feel like our clay court season isn't super long, so to be able to have as many matches as I have had and to have a lot of wins on the clay gives me a lot of confidence going into this.”

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