Australia’s darling of the tennis court Ash Barty endured a torrid relationship with 2025 Australian Open villain Danielle Collins during her playing days, but served up ice cold revenge in her final act as a player.

Collins became public enemy No.1 at Melbourne Park on Thursday night when she defeated Australia’s Destanee Aiava amid a chorus of boos from the parochial home crowd.

She lapped up the attention, blowing kisses to the jeering audience, smacking her own behind as if to tell them to ‘kiss my butt’ and revelled in her victory over the young Australian star.

Then she twisted the knife even more by outlining how she would spend her winner’s cheque. 

 ‘You know, I was thinking during the match, I was like ‘Hmm, if I’m out here, I may as well just take that big, fat pay-cheque’,’ Collins said in her on-court interview.

‘Coco (Vandeweghe) and I just love a five-star vacation, so part of that cheque is going to go towards that. So, thank you guys.’

Barty endured a torrid relationship with American Danielle Collins and did not want to meet her in the final

Collins was reduced to tears after losing to Barty at the 2022 Australian Open in Melbourne

She doubled down on that in her post-match media conference.  

‘Me and my group of girlfriends, we love a five-star vacation, so I can guarantee you that cheque is going to go towards our next five-star trip — hopefully to the Bahamas.,’ she said.

‘We like boats, we like big boats, we like yachts. So, yeah, we’ll post about it and let you guys know how it goes.’ 

But long before she was riling up Aussies aganst Aiava, Collins had already made enemies with the best player in the game – Barty.  

Barty enjoyed a remarkable tennis career, achieving the World No. 1 ranking and winning three Grand Slam singles titles: the French Open (2019), Wimbledon (2021), and the Australian Open (2022). 

However in a shock move, Barty retired at 25, two months after her Australian Open title and still ranked No. 1 in singles at the time, leaving behind a legacy as one of Australia’s greatest tennis champions.

That meant her final match was against Collins, reducing the American to tears as Barty romped her way to the Australian Open title. 

In her book My Dream Time, Barty revealed that she did not want to play Collins in the final that year and that matches between the two were ‘ugly’ and ‘tiring’.

Collins taunted the Australian crowd on Thursday after beating local hope Destanee Aiava

Barty said that matches against Collins were ‘ugly’ and ‘tiring’ in her book that she wrote in retirement from the sport

‘Who I’ll be playing against is decided the next day. Iga Swiatek is playing Danielle Collins, and for me the equation is simple,’ she wrote.

‘I love Iga, and I have a rocky relationship with Danielle. I want to play Iga. I want to share it with her. 

‘But Danielle wins, and I think back to the matches we’ve had in the past and how they were never fun. 

‘I never walk off court after playing Danielle thinking ”that was good tennis”. Each match has been an ugly, tiring scrap.’ 

Barty also revealed in 2022 that she did not watch the semi-final between Collins and Swiatek.

‘It will be a hell of a match tonight. I probably won’t watch it, though,’ she said at the time.

‘Tyzz (coach Craig Tyzzer) can watch that. We keep doing our thing, our routines and come out here on Saturday, enjoy it, a massive smile on my face and see what happens.’

Aussie tennis great Pat Rafter has also previously revealed the troubled relationship between Barty and Collins.  

Aussie tennis great Pat Rafter also revealed details of the tense relationship between Barty and Collins that came to a head at the 2022 Australian Open

‘I knew with her and Danielle, they had a bit of a … what’s the word … there was no love lost, anyway. Danielle’s pretty feisty … and Ash didn’t want to lose to her,’ Rafter said in 2022. 

Rafter said that Collins had such a big impact on Barty that it influenced how she played on court during the Australian Open final in 2022, despite normally being cool, calm and collected.  

‘It was pretty funny, I don’t know how much you can pick up on the on-court subtleties of it but I’m pretty aware of Ash and I understand where her mind’s at and I can see all her little movements and ticks,’ Rafter said of Barty’s raw emotion.

‘I was going, ”oh no, she’s getting rattled, she’s not good”.

‘But she was able to pull it out which was pretty important.

‘I would have hated to see her get to the final and lose because she was the dominant player. I like seeing the best players win.’