{"id":445658,"date":"2025-04-02T21:37:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=445658"},"modified":"2025-04-03T00:14:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T00:14:31","slug":"iconic-aussie-song-plays-as-ex-russian-ticks-off-stressful-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=445658","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Aussie song plays as ex-Russian ticks off 'stressful' first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daria Kasatkina<\/a> admitted the week had been stressful and a bit out of the ordinary but was happy to begin her journey as an Australian player with a win at the Charlestown Open.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina announced this week she will be competing for Australia from now on<\/a> after playing on the tour as a neutral athlete following Russian and Belarusian players being banned from competing under their own flags.<\/p>\n

The crowd gave the Russian-born star\ufeff a warm welcome and organisers did their bit as well, with Men at Work classic Down Under playing at the conclusion of her 6-1, 6-1 hammering of American local hope Lauren Davis.<\/p>\n

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Kasatkina shared how she felt hearing the announcers introduce her as an Australian for the first time as she walked on court.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/TennisChannel\/status\/1907456792730153136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"Well, it happened twice. The walk in on court and on the warm up, I couldn't handle my smile," she said.<\/p>\n

"A new stage for me. So going on court today as an Aussie, this time was stressful, honestly.<\/p>\n

"So it's really special moment for me to win a first match as an Australian player. I'm just really happy, and couldn't believe one day something like that would happen to me."<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the home of grand slam tennis and the place to watch every match of the<\/strong><\/em> Australian Open, Wimbledon, Roland-Garros and US Open<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Kasatkina said in 2023 that she had fled Russia because she did not feel safe "as a gay person who opposes the war."<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Kasatkina went public with her relationship with Russian Olympic figure skater Natalia Zabiiako and in the last two years has been living in Spain and Dubai.<\/p>\n

During that time, she has also been a vocal critic of Russia's war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Asked about what had made her feel so stressed, Kasatkina broke into a laugh post-match when she told Tennis Channel: "Guess, mate!<\/p>\n

"This week was a bit stressful, with all the changes and all the feedback. When the tennis player steps on court, all the stress she's living through explodes.<\/p>\n

"That's how it works. And I'm really happy how I handled that situation today, because it was not easy, honestly."<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Kasatkina was a French Open semi-finalist in 2022 and is currently ranked 12th.<\/p>\n

The eight-time WTA singles champion's best career ranking was eighth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daria Kasatkina admitted the week had been stressful and a bit out of the ordinary but was happy to begin her journey as an Australian […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":445660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445661,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445658\/revisions\/445661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/445660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}