Anastasia Potapova on Sunday played down fans’ reactions over similarities between the announcement of her nationality switch and that of fellow Russian-born player Daria Kasatkina, saying \u200bthere was nothing wrong with borrowing “perfect words.”<\/p>\n
In December, the world number 55 switched international allegiance to Austria and \u200cposted about it on social media, with sharp-eyed fans \u200cquickly spotting striking similarities to Kasatkina<\/a>‘s announcement from when she began representing Australia.<\/p>\n In her post, Potapova<\/a> said Austria was “a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place \u2060where I feel totally at home,”\u00a0the exact same wording \u200cthat Kasatkina used to describe Australia in March.<\/p>\n Kasatkina also \u200baddressed the parallels on X, posting: “No, we are not from same agency.”<\/p>\n Asked about it at the Australian Open, Potapova told reporters: “Well, I don’t find anything wrong with that because you cannot say it in a \u200cbetter way.<\/p>\n “And why not? It was perfect words. I loved it. We loved it with my team, with everyone. So, yeah, we gave it a shot,” she \u2060added, speaking after her 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 win<\/a> over Dutchwoman Suzan Lamens<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n “I don’t think that it’s something terrible happened. I think the media just blew it up just because they didn’t like me with the fact of it happening. I mean, who cares about posts, right?”<\/p>\n Potapova faces Briton Emma Raducanu<\/a>, the 2021 US Open champion, in the second round.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old had been playing on \u2060the WTA Tour as a neutral athlete \u200cafter Russian and Belarusian players were banned from competing under their own flags following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n She is among a number of Russian-born tennis players to have changed their \u2060nationalities, including Kasatkina, Elena Rybakina<\/a> (Kazakhstan), Kamilla Rakhimova<\/a> (Uzbekistan) and \u200bPolina Kudermetova<\/a> (Uzbekistan).<\/p>\n