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Daria Kasatkina is the nation’s latest top-20 participant and can compete underneath the Australian flag for the primary time in Charleston this week.
Melbourne, Australia, 31 March 2025 | Dan Imhoff
Daria Kasatkina’s announcement of a profitable utility to characterize Australia has been warmly acquired with the nation’s new girls’s No.1 to compete for the primary time underneath her new flag at this week’s Charleston Open.
In an enormous boon for Australian girls’s tennis, the Russian-born world No.12 revealed in a social media publish on the weekend that she had been accredited for everlasting residency.
“I’m delighted to allow you to all know that my utility for everlasting residency has been accepted by the Australian Authorities,” Kasatkina stated.
“Australia is a spot I really like, is extremely welcoming and a spot the place I really feel completely at house. I really like being in Melbourne and look ahead to making my house there. As a part of this, I’m proud to announce that I will probably be representing my new homeland Australia, in my skilled tennis profession from this level onwards.”
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Whereas no stranger to Australian followers, having competed at Australian summer time occasions for the previous 9 years, there’s loads to get to know in regards to the gifted 27-year-old.
Australia welcomes top-20 girls’s participant
Not since Ash Barty retired as world No.1 in March 2022 has Australia had a top-20 girls’s participant and Kasatkina’s quick swap has ended that two-year wait.
Solely Barty’s 15 WTA titles and Sam Stosur’s 9 are greater than Kasatkina’s tally of eight amongst gamers representing Australia within the 2000s.
Kasatkina’s career-high mark of world No.8 got here in October 2022, whereas she ended final season at world No.9 – her third year-end end inside the highest 10 – after she was known as up as a late substitute to play the final group stage match of the 2024 WTA Finals, which she misplaced to Iga Swiatek.
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Kasatkina a participant for all surfaces
Kasatkina was one of many three gamers to succeed in WTA finals on exhausting court docket, clay and grass final yr, alongside Jasmine Paolini and Diana Shnaider.
She opened the season with a second successive Adelaide last in January earlier than Jelena Ostapenko halted her title tilt, whereas a month later, it was Elena Rybakina who denied her within the Abu Dhabi last additionally on exhausting court docket.
After a runner-up displaying on clay in Charleston, it was not till the grass swing that she picked up her first silverware of the season in opposition to Leylah Fernandez in Eastbourne.
Following one other hard-court last in Seoul, Kasatkina snared her eighth profession trophy and second of the season in Ningbo, China over good pal Mirra Andreeva, which improved her document in title matches for the yr to 2-4.
Her 26 WTA 500 match wins final yr was probably the most since Angelique Kerber’s 27 in 2015, whereas solely Aryna Sabalenka (seven) made extra finals in 2024.
Semifinal Kasatkina’s finest Grand Slam end
Whereas adept on all surfaces, Kasatkina is a grasp of on-court artistry and clay has proved her most fruitful all through her Grand Slam profession.
In 2022, 4 years after she reached her first main quarterfinal there, she reached her maiden Slam semifinal at Roland Garros, the place she fell to eventual champion Swiatek.
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Upon reaching the final 4, she recommended it wasn’t all all the way down to enjoying distinctive tennis.
“French fries make a number of distinction, I have to say, and right here it’s one, in France,” she stated.
“However clearly, all collectively, for those who play good, it’s a must to deal with your self. Even in case you are not enjoying good it’s not dangerous to deal with your self, since you are pushing and you are attempting. So it needs to be stability in every thing, and it’s not straightforward to search out it, however with years and expertise it’s coming collectively.”
Kasatkina reached the fourth spherical at Melbourne Park for the primary time this yr. Her finest outing at Wimbledon was a quarterfinal in 2018, whereas at Flushing Meadows she has twice reached the fourth spherical (2017, 2023).
Kasatkina and her associate host widespread vlog
The down-to-earth Kasatkina is a notable advocate in opposition to struggle in Ukraine and for the LGBTQ+ group.
At all times one to maintain it actual, her character is aptly mirrored in her widespread YouTube vlog, What The Vlog, which she began together with her girlfriend – Estonian-Russian retired Olympic determine skater Natalia Zabiiako – in an low season journey to the Maldives in November 2022.
The vlog has since advanced to seize the highs and lows of life as a tennis participant with a wholesome dose of humour and off-court authenticity, together with impromptu participant interviews and behind-the-scenes insights.
The vlog initially featured the likes of her closest mates on tour, together with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Australia’s Daria Saville, however has since grown to incorporate interviews with Coco Gauff and semi-regularly with Jelena Ostapenko.
“Within the humorous approach interacting … with the gamers, to know the gamers extra. Yeah, simply to point out life on tour, how it’s,” Kasatkina stated. “Generally, sure, it’s luxurious [life on tour] … however many occasions it’s not. Additionally, there’s a number of sacrifice, struggling, exhausting work. In order that’s mainly what we need to present.”
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