We’ve all experienced it—caught up in the heat of competition, losing track of the moment and the score. For American Danielle Collins, this slip occurred during her second-round match at the Australian Open on Wednesday, in a crucial third-set tiebreak.
Facing off against Karolina Muchová of the Czech Republic, Collins, the No. 13 seed, fought fiercely throughout the match. After narrowly losing the first set, Collins came back strong to win the second. The deciding set was a tight contest, finally requiring a tiebreak to determine the winner.
Collins jumped to a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak, and when Muchová’s forehand went out, giving Collins her seventh point, the American dropped her racket in celebration and raised her hands in triumph.
However, Collins appeared to have overlooked a recent rule change: in grand slam matches that reach six games all in the final set, the winner must now be the first to reach 10 points with a two-point advantage.
After dropping her racket and heading to the net to shake hands, Collins was puzzled by the lack of movement from the umpire and her opponent. She was then informed by the umpire that she still needed to win three more points to secure victory, causing her to smile in relief as she returned to the court.
“I was a little embarrassed,” Collins admitted during the on-court interview. “I had never played a tiebreak in the third set of a grand slam before. I really thought the match was over. At least I didn’t face plant—I had to keep things in perspective. I’m not really good with the score, so maybe I need to work on that a bit.”
Fortunately for Collins, she managed to win the final three points with relative ease, clinching the match 6-7(1-7), 6-2, 7-6(10-6) after a grueling two-hour and 55-minute battle.
Collins isn’t the first to celebrate prematurely in a deciding tiebreak; both Kaia Kanepi and Zheng Qinwen fell victim to the same mistake last year. Collins will now advance to face No. 22 seed Elena Rybakina on Friday in the third round.