{"id":387473,"date":"2026-01-04T11:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T11:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:02:11","slug":"want-to-pay-back-kasatkina-in-emotional-home-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387473\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Want to pay back’: Kasatkina in emotional home debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daria Kasatkina wants to “pay back” Australia with results after admitting she held back tears and dealt with severe nerves during an agonising three-set loss in her home debut.<\/p>\n

The former world No.8, 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 in Sunday’s Brisbane International opener.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina, 28, changed her nationality after opposing the war in Ukraine and coming out as gay.<\/p>\n

On and off-court stress prompted the world No.37 to pull the pin on her 2025 season in early October and her Brisbane return coincidentally came against a woman who switched allegiance from Russia to Austria last month.<\/p>\n

With a packed house cheering their new home hope on Pat Rafter Arena, the match stretched beyond two-and-a-half hours.<\/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

\"Kasatkina.\"<\/p>\n

Kasatkina showed grit to fight back in the third set but ultimately succumbed to Anastasia Potapova. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“Stepping on court and I heard the cheer – I almost started crying but I was able to hold it,” she 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

\"Kasatkina.\"<\/p>\n

Kasatkina received a warm ovation from the Brisbane crowd before and after her match. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Kasatkina and Potapova are among a growing list of Russians to switch allegiance.<\/p>\n

“Everyone has their reasons, we see everything that’s going on,” Kasatkina said when asked if she thought more would follow their lead.<\/p>\n

“Everyone keeps these things secret until the last moment.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a lot of girls switch, so maybe yes, maybe not.”<\/p>\n

\"Ajla<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovic said she hoped to return to the top 30 after winning her first match in Brisbane. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Kasatkina’s loss came after a “grateful” Ajla Tomljanovic beat France’s Elsa Jacquemot 6-1 6-3 and declared that after a challenging few years she could still deliver her best tennis at 32.<\/p>\n

The Australian former world No.32, who boasts three grand slam quarter-final appearances, battled knee issues in 2024 and battled mentally last year.<\/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,” Tomljanovic, now ranked 80 in the world, said of her 2025 campaign.<\/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

Tomljanovic will play Karolina Muchova in the second round of a Brisbane event stacked with seven of the world’s top-10 women.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night Thanasi Kokkinakis, who had pectoral surgery last year, won in the doubles with Nick Kyrgios in the former’s first match in almost a year.<\/p>\n

The pair, who won the Australian Open doubles in 2022, beat compatriot Matt Ebden and American Rajeev Ram 5-7 6-4 10-8.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Aleksandar Vukic was no match for American favourite Frances Tiafoe, losing 6-2 6-2.<\/p>\n

Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, also progressed to the second round with victory against Elena-Gabriela Ruse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daria Kasatkina wants to “pay back” Australia with results after admitting she held back tears and dealt with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[38170,149698,2840,162965,49,48,27654,82,593],"class_list":["post-387473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ajla-tomljanovic","tag-anastasia-potapova","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-international","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daria-kasatkina","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}