Daria Kasatkina slumps to lowest ranking since 2015 after squandering four match points in Madrid Open howler

Daria Kasatkina has been free-falling down the rankings in recent months. A painful defeat in the first round of the Madrid Open sums up the desperate situation that she is currently in. It has seen her drop to her lowest ranking experienced in 11 years.

Overall, it was a damaging day for Australian tennis as all four players crashed out of the first round. Talia Gibson, Ajla Tomljanovic and Kimberly Birrell all faltered at the first hurdle, but it will be Kasatkina who takes the headlines.

She first made an impression back in 2018. Still representing Russia, she reached a brace of Grand Slam quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon along with a run to the final of Indian Wells, losing to Naomi Osaka in straight sets. That year, she debuted in the top 10 in the world.

Kasatkina was not able to continue this fine form over the next few years, tumbling down the order. She finished 2019 and 2020 ranked 69th and 71st respectively before a much improved 2021 saw her streak back up the order once more, winning her first titles since 2018. 2022 was a fruitful year. She reached the semi-final of the Rome Open and French Open in a delightful clay swing before winning a brace of WTA titles in August. In October, she climbed to a career high of world number eight as she looked destined to continue rising, challenging the best players in the world.

2024 saw her make it to six WTA 500 finals. She won just two of them in Eastbourne and Ningbo. This has taken her overall title haul to eight. Since this point, Kasatkina has failed to appear in any other finals as a fall from grace would culminate this positive spell of form.

Kasatkina ended 2024 as world number nine. She has cemented herself as a firm member of the top 20 at this point, challenging for the latter places in the coveted top 10. There was a lot of points to defend from all the final reached, and she could not replicate that form on the big stage. That included Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events, not making it past the fourth round in any of them.

In March of 2025, Kasatkina announced that she would start representing Australian from now on. Turbulation in her personal life may have had an impact in her form on court. This proved too much at the end of the year, walking away from the sport after the China Open at the end of September.

She returned to compete on her new home soil for the first time. It was a disappointing turnout, winning just one singles match from two tournaments which included being knocked out of the first round of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2023.

Kasatkina missed the Sunshine swing due to a hip injury and has since played two matches in Rouen and Madrid, losing both. This most recent defeat to Daria Snigur will leave a sour taste in her mouth. After the qualifier took the lead, Kasatkina fought back and levelled up at one set all. In a very tense third set, she broke back as Snigur was serving it out before failing to convert a match point two games later. The tiebreak would be a hugely dramatic and unpredictable affair. In total, 10 match points were created, seven by Snigur who eventually got over the line 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13). For Kasatkina, three more match points came and went, totalling four missed chances to make more progress in this tournament.

With this first round defeat, she will lose the points from her third round run last year. In the WTA live rankings, you have to scroll down to 84th in the world to find a desperately out of form Kasatkina. Now Australian number five, this is the lowest she has been ranked since 2015, and it could get worse with oncoming traffic behind. The 28-year-old has some work to do if she is going to get back to her imperious best, and soon before she falls even further into the mire.