{"id":391802,"date":"2026-01-04T21:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/391802\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T21:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:19:11","slug":"daria-kasatkina-defeated-at-brisbane-international-as-ajla-tomljanovic-reaches-second-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/391802\/","title":{"rendered":"Daria Kasatkina defeated at Brisbane International as Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 reaches second round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daria Kasatkina wants to “pay back” Australia after admitting she held back tears and dealt with severe nerves during an agonising three-set loss at the Brisbane International.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former world number eight, who switched allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, showed grit and baseline power but was let down by her serve in a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 loss to Anastasia Potapova on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina, 28, was playing her first match in Australia since changing her nationality after opposing the war in Ukraine and coming out as gay.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport will have live coverage of the Australian Open from January 18.<\/p>\n

On and off-court stress prompted the world number 37 to pull the pin on her 2025 season in early October.<\/p>\n

Her Brisbane return coincidentally came against a woman who switched allegiance from Russia to Austria last month.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina found rhythm on serve to force a third set and rallied from 5-2 down in the decider, before another conceded service game sealed her fate.<\/p>\n

Tears for Thanasi, grins for Nick as Special Ks make their return<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanasi Kokkinakis said he didn’t think he’d be able to return to tennis after a 2025 blighted by injury. Instead he’s made a winning return alongside doubles partner and all-round showman Nick Kyrgios.<\/p>\n

“Stepping on court and I heard the cheer \u2014 I almost started crying but I was able to hold it,” Kasatkina said.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to win so much and feel this extra energy.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been through a tough year. Now I’m fine, but I have to get out of that deep hole.”<\/p>\n

Sixteen double faults, many at crucial moments, represented a “nightmare” Kasatkina is constantly working on.<\/p>\n

Playing her 11th Australian summer, Kasatkina admitted she would carry a different weight of expectation at next week’s Adelaide International and the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

“Nobody’s putting this pressure on me, only I do because I want to represent Australia and when it’s not happening, I feel bad,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I want to pay back to the country.<\/p>\n

“I’m getting to know the Australian mentality: the people here, they support because they want to, they don’t expect you to go and win slams.<\/p>\n

“It’s just the way I am.”<\/p>\n

Tomljanovi\u0107 advances<\/p>\n

Kasatkina’s loss came after Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 beat France’s Elsa Jacquemot 6-1, 6-3.<\/p>\n

The Australian former world number 32, who boasts three grand slam quarterfinal appearances, has been hampered by physical and mental health challenges in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"Ajla<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 safely moved through to the second round. (AAP: Zain Mohammed)<\/p>\n

“I really struggled to just enjoy what I’ve been doing for this long, and I really had to dig deep to just find it again,” the 80th-ranked Tomljanovi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n

“In the middle of the season I made a bit of a switch in my head and just looked at everything in a way that I’m just grateful to still be here.<\/p>\n

“Certain things started to click.”<\/p>\n

Tomljanovi\u0107 will play 11th seed Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 in the second round.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daria Kasatkina wants to “pay back” Australia after admitting she held back tears and dealt with severe nerves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64302,64,63,6571,178628,32599,44,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-391802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-ajla-tomljanovic","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-open","12":"tag-brisbane-international","13":"tag-daria-kasatkina","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}