Batman movies are only as good as their villains. Same with James Bond, the Marvel movies, and basically any cinematic experience that contains a bad guy.
We constantly compare Heath Ledger's Joker to Jack Nicholson’s, and everyone has a favourite Bond villain.
When it comes to movies, we love villains. Or maybe it’s that we love how much we hate them?
But in sports, we never seem to have the same fondness for them.
In the sports world, there are many different types of villains.
Whether it be the team or athlete who seemingly just can’t lose, so we have no choice but to start rooting against them.
It can be the young kid who comes in a little too hot and cocky for our liking, so the fans begin to have a general dislike for them.
Maybe it’s the player who talks the talk but always falls short when it comes to doing the walk.
At the end of the day, in sports, there are villains in all shapes and sizes, and at the 2025 Australian Open, tennis fans, and more specifically, Aussie fans, found who their villain was going to be, and that was Danielle Collins.
The 31-year-old American has been around the tennis world for a while now, and despite this year’s open being her eighth appearance at the tournament, this was the first time she’d been viewed as a villain.
She wasn’t cheating, or playing dirty, but because she taunted the Kia Arena crowd after defeating Destanee Aiava, she made several thousand enemies in the stands.
Now obviously being an Australian, playing in Australia, it meant that Aiava was going to have the crowd on her side, so of course Collins wasn’t going to be feeling the love from those in attendance.
It was pretty clear early in the match just how one-sided the crowd support was, as with every point won by Aiava, a loud eruption occurred. Meanwhile, any win Collins had was met with more of a courtesy clap.
The only time the 2022 Australian Open runner-up got any kind of cheer was when she made any error.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with this. Of course, you’re going to actively root for your favourite team or player when in attendance and hope the opposition makes a mistake.
But after having around 5000 people actively barrack against Collins for nearly two and a half hours, when she got the win, is it really surprising that she wanted to rub it in?
After Aiava failed to return a backhand and Collins won the match, she was quick to cup her hand to her ear, and, with a massive smirk, said to the crowd, "How about that?"
It was followed up by blowing kisses all around while the boos showered down on her.
The ruthless crowd continued booing as she began her post-match interview, leading to her grabbing the microphone and reminding everyone about the "big fat pay check" she would receive from the match and how some of it would be used on her next holiday.
Was it a graceful way to celebrate a win?
No.
But put yourself in her position - you’ve just had an arena full of people actively rooting against you - and now you’ve won.
Are you really going to be able to resist gloating a little?
If you answered yes, then congratulations, you’re a better person than most.
I may not have had 5000 people booing me, but recently on a trip away with friends while playing a card game, I did have my girlfriend rooting against me (I would much rather the 5000 people if I’m being honest), and I won’t go into details, but let’s just say when I did win, I certainly wasn’t classy.
So overall, while Collins could have toned it down a little, honestly, she was well within her rights to fire back at the crowd.
However, the aftereffects of her actions have to make you wonder if it’s good for tennis to have a villain.
You’re probably asking what good outcomes there could be from a villain in tennis. Well for starters, Collins' actions certainly gave the sport more attention.
The video on YouTube of her celebrating the winning point has around 138,000 views at the time of writing. In comparison, the video of Madison Keys winning the whole tournament has 428,000 views.
The absolute pinnacle of the Australian Open has generated just over 300,000 more views than a game-winner from the second round.
No disrespect to Collins or Aiava, but people certainly weren’t clicking onto the video purely for their playing abilities, obviously it was because they wanted to see the celebration and the crowd reaction.
After the match, the clips of her interview and celebration were everywhere on social media. Collins even became a trending topic on X for a few days in the aftermath.
I’m sure a few extra sets of eyes were on the Collins-Keys third-round match two days later, purely to tune in for Collins.
Sure, it may have been just to hate-watch in the hope that Collins would get humbled, but at the end of the day, the sport of tennis was reaching wider audiences, who may not have originally watched.
Having a villain also makes watching sports fun, especially if the player and/or team embraces and enjoys that they’ve been made out to be the bad guy.
It’s theatrical seeing an athlete take in the endless boos and hatred from a stadium full of people, just to overcome them, walk away as the winner, and make those same people eat a piece of humble pie.
I’m not a fan of the WWE, but from what I can tell, the whole appeal is that heroes and villains are taking on each other in wrestling, but it’s all scripted, and instead of getting an organic villain like we got with Collins, their fans are virtually told who to root for and against.
Instead of acting, we may now get the real deal in tennis.
Imagine what it’ll be like if Collins makes an appearance at Melbourne Park next year, even better, if she takes on another Aussie, it would be like a movie.
Now there is a downside to villains, sometimes the fans can take it too far and cross a line. With social media, fans of all sports are no strangers to people hiding behind a screen to launch an attack on an athlete.
Another negative is that a villain’s accomplishments can be overlooked or ignored, purely because people don’t like them, so we’re quick to dismiss them when one of the sports bad guys actually ends up coming out on top.
There’s no doubt that being the bad guy is a thankless role in sports.
Having countless people up against you every time you step onto the court would be a hard thing to overcome, but at the same time, you can’t tell me Collins didn’t love the fact that it gave her another obstacle to overcome.
At the end of the day, a villain in tennis would help and not hinder the sport, especially when it comes to bringing in new fans of all ages. So, just like how we enjoy villains in movies, it’s time to embrace them in tennis.
The best thing about sport is unlike on the big screen, we don’t know if the villain ends up being defeated, or if we have to suffer with their triumph.
Let’s embrace villains in tennis.
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