"He wants people to love him" slams Kasatkina Djokovic for not being true self

In a candid interview, WTA star Daria Kasatkina has made no secret of the fact that she has never been a fan of Novak Djokovic and admits she is unimpressed with how he “wants people to love him”.

Djokovic was unable to defend his Australian Open title in Melbourne following a run-in with authorities over his visa and his vaccination status. The tennis community – or perhaps even the wider sporting community – appears to be divided into two camps as there is one group who feels he should have been allowed to defend his title while the other side believes the right decision was made by Australian authorities.

Kasatkina counts herself in the 2nd camp admitting to Eurosport Russia:

“I will say this, it would be unpleasant for the players if Djokovic was allowed to play. Because we all made some kind of sacrifice, we accepted the rules of the game in order to play. Novak wanted to go his own way. If he was allowed to play with all the set of absurdities that eventually happened, it would not be fair to the players.”

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Kasatkina also spoke about how she is not afraid to show her true self:

“No, I’m not afraid. Why be afraid to show the real you. If people don’t like who you are, okay. It’s better than when people like you for who you are not. It’s better to be disliked for who you are.”

Kasatkina then attacked Djokovic further saying:

“There is such a person – Djokovic. We all see how he wants people to love him. How he tries to do everything for this, but it does not work. Because in the end it still feels like something is not right. Rafa [Nadal] is real, he doesn’t smash rackets because he just hasn’t done it since childhood. He splashes out emotions in a different way – the same ‘Vamos’ of his is adored by many. Not many people like it when people try to seem like they are not. The pretence is visible.”