US OPEN

August 19, 2025

Danielle Collins

Christian Harrison

Press Conference

COLLINS-HARRISON/Townsend-Shelton

4-1, 5-4

THE MODERATOR: Christian, Danielle, before we start with questions, each of your thoughts on a successful day.

DANIELLE COLLINS: Yeah, I mean, to not be in the tournament, then to be in the tournament at the last minute... I feel like we kind of were predicting we were going to get in. We were talking about just the cool element, if somebody pulled out, we got in. We were prepared for the most part.

Yeah, to go out there and finally get to play with each other. We've been talking about doing this for a while. Just played so well. Go in with a ton of strategy. Yeah, we were like a vibe out there.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: Yeah, like Danielle said, we go way back. She's one of my closest friends in tennis. I have a good idea what her strengths and weaknesses are. She doesn't really have any weaknesses. She didn't miss too many balls. She made it easy for me to sit back and watch today.

Honestly, as we got in, I has become such a big deal. So many people started texting even before we played the match. You could start to feel the magnitude.

Just before we started playing, I was having so much fun. That's all I was thinking about. I was having a really good time. The wins are just a bonus for us.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Which one of you approached --

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CHRISTIAN HARRISON: -- quite a while. She was always supportive of me when I didn't play for many years. She was always killing it. I always looked up to players like her that was around our group, especially Danielle, because she was always doing so well. I know how hard she works and how hard she competes, everything she brings day in, day out.

DANIELLE COLLINS: I feel like we probably talked about this so many times, like starting at 15.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: This was the first time there was a possibility. I think I asked her right away.

DANIELLE COLLINS: I think maybe even during my first US Open when I was in college, I feel like we talked about playing. I played with Ryan one time. You got to even out the love, you know what I mean? You can't just play with one sibling, you got to play with both (smiling).

Yeah, so cool.

Q. Danielle, you talked about how sometimes balancing singles and doubles is difficult. When this opportunity came up in this format, how excited were you to have the opportunity to play?

DANIELLE COLLINS: Yeah, I think the format is so cool. What an amazing concept. When we got in today, a couple friends were like, We're going to try to make it to the match.

I was like to my team, Do we need to get tickets?

When they told me it's just open, people can come out, I think that's the coolest concept ever.

How many tournaments --

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Q. -- did your mindset change once you got the golden ticket to get in the competition?

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: Honestly I tried not to have too much of a view. You want the sport to evolve. Anytime I think that's the main goal, to be honest, where people are trying things. Things are never going to be perfect the first time with anything.

But I think from here, we were always like, Hey, they're trying to do something to make it evolve. It's hard not to be supporting something with that mindset.

Honestly, I just try to stay neutral. There's enough stress out here in the world with tennis and everything, life, adding that to the top of something to complain about wasn't on it. I think more than anything, like I said, we're trying to make improvements like that and everybody can be on board.

Q. I'm sure after you saw what happened with Jannik yesterday, that was your first clue you had a good chance potentially.

DANIELLE COLLINS: One of the clues, yeah.

Q. How did it all work through the evening last night and through this morning in terms of when you found out --

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DANIELLE COLLINS: -- I had to just kind of get back, get to bed early, get a good night's sleep. We were up early because we had to be early to sign in, that we were available. Then we had a little hit on court. Yeah, we're just kind of chilling like the whole day. It was great. Our group was together. We were having a good time, like we do.

Q. You found out at 10:45 or when did you fully actually know you were playing?

DANIELLE COLLINS: Because I have selective hearing, he told me twice, and it didn't register. At some point I was like, Wait, when are we going to get?

He was like, I literally just told you we got in twice.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: We took a picture, first official picture, getting in the tournament. We're hitting, warming up. Next changeover she's like, Are we in yet?

I'm like, That's literally why we took the picture (smiling).

Selective hearing.

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DANIELLE COLLINS: I'm almost a 35-year-old woman. That's terrifying. Yeah, no, he's five and a half. He's still my baby son. He's been really enjoying his time here, I have to say. US Open has been hooking him up. He got a wonderful scarf as a welcome gift. He got a YETI dog bowl. What else? He's been eating salmon and sweet potatoes. The chefs upstairs have been making him nice meals. He had bacon and eggs for breakfast today. What is it going to be tonight, surf and turf? We're getting spoiled here and so is Quincy.

Q. Thoughts on your next match, Errani and Vavassori next, defending champions. How do you see in general this first-ever event prime time?

DANIELLE COLLINS: They already have enough trophies. We can try to take it from them. Do they need another (smiling)?

Q. I guess you played Sara in singles. Do you have a way how to unravel the web that they've been tangling people up in?

DANIELLE COLLINS: I'm bad on the spot like this when it comes to strategy. I feel like I have to sit down and refresh my memory if I'm being completely honest.

Yeah, I played her in singles a while back. Obviously, yeah, she has a more, like, counterpunching type game style, I would say, in singles. I kind of need to sit down and look at what she's doing a little bit in the doubles. I'm sure there's a lot more strategy involved.

Then, yeah, I need to scout out her partner, too.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: There you go.

DANIELLE COLLINS: What do you think?

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: You got it down. I got a great partner. We're just worried about honestly having fun.

DANIELLE COLLINS: Are we worried about having fun?

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: I feel like we have fun. Playing better right now. That's doubles, that's energy. That could change tomorrow. We'll see.

DANIELLE COLLINS: You never know, right?

CHRISTIAN HARRISON: We're excited more than anything.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you both.