Barbie characters and plot were excellent: Danielle Collins takes movie timeout ahead of Canadian Open quarters

Danielle Collins demonstrated an unconventional way to rev up for a massive tournament. Instead of immersing herself in non-stop practice sessions and mental prep, along with her coach, Jared Jacobs, she took a timeout to draw inspiration from Barbie, an alluring doll she loved playing with during her growing years.

“I absolutely loved the Barbie movie. I found the characters extremely fascinating and the story truly gripping,” said Collins, who once held the No.48 rank amongst her professional rivals. “I found everything that the movie represented extremely appealing, relatable and encouraging.”

Collins’s unusual strategy seemed to pay off, as she aced the qualifiers for the Canadian Open, netting impressive victories over Eugenie Bouchard and Emina Bektas. Buoyed by these triumphs, she stormed through the main draw, nailing straight set victories over Elina Svitolina, Maria Sakkari, and Leylah Fernandez before etching her presence in the WTA 1000 quarterfinal, a glory she last achieved in Miami, 2022.

However, Collins has a daunting challenge ahead. She has less than a day to prepare for her upcoming face-off with top-seed Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals, where she aspires to replicate her Australian Open 2020 semifinals success against Swiatek, although the latter turned the tables on her with a straight-set defeat earlier this year in Doha.

A win against Swiatek means a golden chance for Collins to advance to her first WTA 1000 semifinal since 2018 and her biggest semifinal since reaching the Australian Open final back in 2020.

“I look forward to battling Swiatek for the third time,” Collins stated. “I hope I can replicate my first encounter’s success against her and put up a good show. So far, it’s been a phenomenal week, and I’m hoping to keep up the momentum.”