CNN
—
Top seed Danielle Collins suffered a surprise defeat to youngster Erika Andreeva in her opening match of the Monterrey Open, where she also punched members of the crowd.
Andreeva, the older sister of 17-year-old prodigious talent Mirra Andreeva, claimed an impressive 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory in what was her first career win against a top-20 player.
But the highlight of the match came as Collins waited for Andreeva to serve in the third set. Hearing something from the stands, she threw her arms up in the air and asked part of the crowd: “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t understand. It’s not that difficult to let us play tennis and support each other,” she said.
Collins, world number 11, will retire at the end of the season aged just 30 after suffering from a number of health problems during her career, including rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis, meaning the upcoming US Open will be her last Grand Slam.
The American had a brilliant final year on the tour, winning the first WTA 1000 event of her career at the Miami Open last March, followed by victory at the Charleston Open in April.
Collins earned a bye into the second round in Monterrey, while Andreeva, 20, had to pull off a solid three-set win over Anhelina Kalinina; she will now face either Lulu Sun or María Lourdes Carlé in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez was defeated by qualifier Ana Bogdan in the first round of the Cleveland Championships.
The Romanian world number 103 came back impressively to win 1-6 7-6(2) 6-2 as Fernandez, the second seed and world number 24, committed 11 double faults in an error-strewn performance.
Fernandez served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but was unable to hold serve and eventually lost in a tie-break.
