Russian-born former world No 8 has found a source of optimism in Australian ‘chill’ while getting used to peculiarities of life in her new country
D
aria Kasatkina wants Australia to call her something else. “I think ‘Dasha’ is better,” says the former Russian. “Daria is more like an official name which is written in my passport, so I prefer Dasha because it’s just less … formal.”
There has been upheaval in the life of the 28-year-old, much of it in the past 12 months. She became engaged to her partner, Natalia Zabiiako, a former elite figure skater, better known as Natasha. “It works the same way, like, with my name,” Kasatkina says.
Kasatkina pulled out of three major tournaments at the end of last year’s gruelling WTA Tour for the first time in her career, citing exhaustion. Though she made the round of 16 at Roland Garros on the clay she has traditionally preferred, as well as at Melbourne Park, her ranking slipped to its lowest in more than five years.
