Daria Kasatkina Eager to Return After Melbourne Crowd's Support

The gay 28-year-old changed allegiance to Australia last March having criticised Moscow's attitude towards LGBTQ people and described the war in Ukraine as a "nightmare". The former world number eight played Nikola Bartunkova in the first round and despite enjoying strong support from the Melbourne crowd, her Czech opponent won 7-6 (9/7), 0-6, 6-3. "I was excited. You know, the support actually helped me," said Kasatkina, now ranked 43. Kasatkina, who has won eight WTA titles, had to wait until the end of Tuesday night to make her long-awaited Melbourne bow as a fully-fledged Australian. The excruciating delay did not help her nerves, she said. "The body was cramping a little bit ... It's stress, plus waiting around basically for, I don't know, about 12 hours," she said. Kasatkina is desperate to repay the faith of her new country and supporters. "Honestly, I enjoyed it," she said. "Unfortunately now I have to wait for another year to experience this again." The Australian fans already have a couple of nicknames for their newest recruit, with encouraging shouts of "Dasha" and "Dash" ringing out during the three-set defeat. "I need an Aussie nickname, so we need to come up with some Aussie nicknames," she said. © 2026 AFP