Daria Kasatkina shares why she was stressed before her first match as an Australian at the Australian Open

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Daria Kasatkina played her first Australian Open match with an Australian flag next to her name at this year’s tournament.

Looking to get off to a winning start, Kasatkina played Nikola Bartuncova in round one.

Kasatkina dropped the first set in a tiebreaker 6-7 [7-9], but fought back to win the second 6-0, forcing a decider.

Unfortunately for the 28-year-old, she couldn’t get over the line and lost the final set 6-3.

During her post-match press conference, Kasatkina was asked if representing her new country for the first time added to her stress.

Daria Kasatkina says it was actually the court confusion that stressed her out

“Well, I honestly didn’t feel like more nervous than I usually feel. So maybe, but I was excited,” she said.

“The support actually helped me.

“You know this confusion with the court switch was a little bit… You know, we didn’t know until the last moment which court we were going to step on, so it added a little bit of stress.”

Kasatkina explained how the last-minute switch affected her preparations.

“It’s more that when you’re about to jump on court, and then they say, Aah, they’re going four, five sets, so we’re considering switching to another court, and that court goes three sets, and then you’re… Now we don’t know what to do,” she said.

“We warmed up five, six times.

“For me, the difference is just — for me, the difference is just too big.”

Kasatkina will now have to wait another 12 months to win her first match as an Aussie at the Australian Open…

‘That’s life’ – Disappointed Daria Kasatkina reflects on defeat

“I enjoyed it,” she said.

“Unfortunately, now I have to wait for another year to experience this again.

“Not everything is happening the way you want to, so that’s life, and, yeah, I’ll just, you know, get this, the lessons of this summer and bring it with me to the next tournament.

“This is how tennis works. And hopefully next year I’ll be not more prepared but you know, I’ll be able to show a better performance basically.”

Kasatkina wants to deliver a better performance for her new Australian fans, but there’s plenty of work for her to do before then.

Having once been ranked as high as eighth in the world, Kasatkina is now the world number 43.

Looking to climb the rankings once more, Kasatkina is scheduled to return to the WTA Tour at the Abu Dhabi Open.

However, due to her current ranking, the Australian has entered into the qualifying draw.

The qualifying draw for the 2026 Abu Dhabi Open begins on Saturday, January 30.