1 month ago
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A teary Daria Kasatkina faced the media at 12.15am today after losing her first-round match to Czech Nikola Bartunkova.
In her first AO match as an Australian, Kasatkina’s opponent won 7-6 (9-7), 0-6, 6-3 in just over two hours.
Daria Kasatkina in action last night.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The Australian had struggled on serve and was missing technical finesse.
“I think everything is written on my face,” Kasatkina said.
“You know, the match definitely didn’t go the way I wanted. Also, I mean, a long wait, waiting for the match for so long, playing last day of the first round … just, you know, gave everything I had, and just super disappointed with the result.
“Obviously, I had higher hopes but, yeah, sport is like that.”
It was Kasatkina’s first major return since she took an extended break from tennis at the end of 2025 due to extreme burnout. She said she was still missing small, but important, parts of her game.
“Mentally it’s pretty easy to come back because it is something which swallows you, and you are there,” she said.
“I played .… my fourth match, yeah, of the year basically. I feel that it’s, you know, just small details which I’m missing. Just the things which you’re getting playing a lot of matches. And I didn’t play a lot of matches in the past couple of months, let’s say, so obviously it’s not very easy.”
Despite the result, Kasatkina said she was grateful for the Australian fans cheering her on late into the night.
“I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, now I have to wait for another year to experience this again,” she said.
“You know, not everything is happening the way you want to, so that’s life … hopefully next year I’ll be – not more prepared, but, you know, I’ll be able to show a better performance.”
Kasatkina will play doubles today alongside fellow Australian Arina Rodionova.
You can read more about Kasatkina here.
