‘I am free and happy’: Daria Kasatkina has no regrets ahead of first grand slam as Australian
When Daria Kasatkina announced that she had officially switched allegiance from Russia to Australia, she picked up her phone soon after to be greeted with whoops of delight from another Australian player, Daria Saville.
“I was not telling anyone before it came out,” Kasatkina says to Guardian Australia on the eve of the 2025 French Open. “Dasha called me straightaway and she was so excited. She was so happy for me and I felt so happy because she was super-happy for me.
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“It was so natural and now we’re real neighbours. I could not have a better neighbour. She’s always happy, she’s one of the happiest people, I’ve known her a long time, but it’s special that she feels so happy for me. And now we’re part of one team.”
Saville knows better than most what it is like to switch national and sporting allegiance, having done so in 2014 and going on to marry Australian tennis player Luke Saville and become a citizen. Long-time friends, Saville is now helping Kasatkina to find a place to live near her own home in Melbourne. “Well, she’s trying,” Kasatkina says. “She’s sending me locations, everything. I have to look deeper into it.”
Changing nationality was not a decision that came easy to Kasatkina, but one she felt she had to take. One of the few Russian-born players to publicly condemn the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the fact that she is openly gay means she can’t live the life she wants to in the nation of her birth. When the opportunity to become an Australian citizen, an idea first broached by her agent, John Morris, to Tennis Australia during this year’s Australian Open, she jumped at the chance.
Official meetings followed and forms were completed, if not exactly by Kasatkina herself. “I don’t know the exact details because I was not doing the applications,” she says with a laugh. “As a professional athlete, we’re never doing this stuff.” Luckily, there were no awkward questions and the process was swift, with Kasatkina becoming a permanent resident of Australia on 29 March.
“Of course it’s a big decision,” she says, adding that her family were happy as long as she is happy. “It’s never easy to do something like that. But I am very conscious when I am making this step that I know this is better for my future. I ended up in the situation where I have to make this choice. It’s unfortunate, but I had to make it and I’m happy with the decision.
“Honestly, in the past couple of months, I have become a much happier person. I feel like a lot of weight has dropped off my shoulders. I am free and happy. For me this is the most important thing and … I feel this decision is right.”
Australia is happy too, with Kasatkina immediately boosting their credentials as a top-20 player. The 28-year-old’s results have been up and down since the change, but she is a proven world-class performer, a former semi-finalist at Roland Garros and someone equally adept on grass. Totally comfortable with her decision, the only thing Kasatkina still finds a little strange is when the tournament MCs introduce her as being from Australia.
“I’m still getting used to it,” she says. “It’s a great feeling to represent a country like Australia. It’s just something to get used to, I guess. I’m very happy with how everyone welcomed me. The first couple of times it did feel a bit strange. Also to see this beautiful flag next to me, I’m getting more used to it, because at the beginning in the schedule I was a bit confused, but now it’s becoming better.”
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Being Australia’s No 1, and suddenly having an entire new nation behind her, is a fresh experience and even for someone as experienced as Kasatkina, it’s something extra to deal with. “It’s maybe a little bit of additional pressure, especially when I stepped on court for that first match,” she says. “That was a lot of pressure. But I’m just going and playing every match like before. It’s adding maybe a little pressure but we are facing pressure every single day.”
Kasatkina has not had the best of clay-court seasons; in fact she has won just two matches in three tournaments since her switch was announced. But as one of the most talented players on the WTA Tour, with more variety than most, she knows that it could take just one good performance to flick a switch.
“You’re going to have ups and downs,” she says, ahead of a first-round match with the Czech, Katerina Siniakova. “You can be super-ready and still not win many matches and then, next couple of weeks, you may not be feeling amazing, but still somehow you’re there. That’s normal. I just keep working, I keep pushing and sooner or later, the results will come. I’m very positive about that.”
