Daria Kasatkina admits she was nervous heading into this week’s Adelaide International after booking her place in the second round on Monday.
Kasatkina held her nerve to see off Maria Sakkari 7-6(7), 6-4 in what was a battle of the former top 10 players. The world no.48 was put through her paces by Sakkari in a match where she was down 1-4 in the opening set before prevailing in the tiebreaker. Then, in the second frame, Kasatkina was also down a break at 3-4 but went on to win three games in a row to seal victory.
The triumph marks Kasatkina’s first Tour-level win on Australian soil since switching her allegiance to the country from Russia last year. She has previously told reporters that her decision to change countries was motivated by a desire for greater freedom. Kasatkina is openly gay and in Russia there are numerous legal restrictions placed on the LGBT community. Furthermore, she has also criticised the war with Ukraine, which in Russia has to be referred to as a ‘special military operation’ by the media.
“Honestly, I was waiting for this moment all summer,” Kasatkina told Nine about her win over Sakkari.
“I was super nervous coming from Brisbane and losing a tough match there and then seeing the draw here and thinking, ‘oh Dasha, what did you expect from such a strong tournament?’
“I am honestly over the moon right now, it’s so special, you guys (the fans) make it special, thank you so much. A super special day for me, I really wanted to finally experience this feeling of winning a match in front of a home crowd. Honestly, it feels pretty addictive.”
Elaborating further, the 28-year-old says she has admired Australian fans for a while and how they support their players.
“They’ve got this privilege to play in front of the home crowd at a home slam, but I never expected to be one of them,”she said.
Kasatkina has previously enjoyed success in Adelaide, having reached the final twice in 2023 and 2024. In this year‘s draw, her next match will be against Romanian qualifier Jaqueline Cristian, who stunned fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-4.
Elsewhere, Denmark’s Clara Tucson has suffered a blow ahead of the Australian Open after retiring from her first round match. The fifth seed called for a physio when down 7-6(5), to Ajla Tomljanovic, before calling it quits due to injury. There is yet to be any formal clarity regarding the injury she is suffering from or its severity.
