‘Stressful’ debut as Daria Kasatkina appears as Australian player for first time

“And please welcome from Australia, Daria Kasatkina!” With those words from the MC introducing her on court at the Charleston Open on Wednesday, Australia’s latest tennis import admitted she was left feeling a bag of nerves about the advent of her new adventure.

She need not have worried. For just over an hour later, following her consummate first triumph as an Australian player, Kasatkina was soaking up the cheers of the US crowd amid the strains of “I come from a land Down Under”, while beaming a smile of relief mixed with joy.

“A new stage for me. So going on court today as an Aussie, this time was stressful, honestly,” said the 27-year-old, after her 6-1, 6-1 demolition of American Lauren Davis demonstrated just what a class act Australia has been gifted in the world No 12.

“I just couldn’t keep my smile from breaking through,” she said after hearing the announcer say “...from Australia”.

“So it’s really special moment for me to win a first match as an Australian player. I’m just really happy, and couldn’t believe one day something like that would happen to me.”

Kasatkina’s switch of allegiance from her native Russia to Australia has been the talk of world tennis. But it has proved hugely stressful too for an athlete who, being openly gay and having been so outspoken against the invasion of Ukraine, felt she had no choice but to abandon Russia so “I could be myself”.

“This week was a bit stressful, with all the changes and all the feedback,” she said. “When the tennis player steps on court, all the stress she’s living through explodes. That’s how it works. And I’m really happy how I handled that situation today, because it was not easy, honestly.”

Yet Kasatkina made it look simple against the world No 211, demonstrating why she’s the best female player to represent Australia since Ash Barty retired.

She swept into a 5-0 lead for the loss of just nine points on her preferred clay surface, and despite an early second-set blip when she got broken after serving three-straight double faults – a weakness that’s long bugged her game – she was in a different league to former Hobart winner Davis.

skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Recap Free weekly newsletter The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion

“Australia’s a great place. It’s a bit far [away], not going to lie, but it’s a great place, very welcoming place,” she said after setting up a last-16 clash with either 17th seed Belinda Bencic or former Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin.

“The people there are just different there, so nice. Everyone is treated the same. I mean, it’s just the harmony there. You feel like nobody’s judging anybody, and you can be yourself.”

Click here to read article