“Some messages still find you”: Daria Kasatkina opens up on online abuse in tennis

Daria Kasatkina celebrated officially becoming an Australian citizen as she prepares for her debut at the Australian Open this Sunday, where she will face 18-year-old Czech teenager Nikola Bartunkova, who comes through qualifying.

For Kasatkina, it will be her first opportunity to present herself as a home player at the season’s first Grand Slam. After ten consecutive appearances at the Australian Open, this will mark the first time she competes under the Australian flag.

“For the first time, I’m going to play in front of such a big home crowd, so that’s going to be special. I definitely have to manage my nerves because I’ve never been in this situation before. But honestly, I’m super proud. It’s an extremely positive change,” Kasatkina said when speaking about her recent change of nationality. “The whole last year was a year of transition, and it brought me to where I am right now. I’m really happy about it.”

The Russian-born player officially changed her citizenship in 2025 but had not yet had the opportunity to make her on-court presentation to the Australian public until the start of this season. She suffered an opening-round loss to Anastasia Potapova in Brisbane, while in Adelaide she finally secured her first victory as an Australian on home soil, defeating Maria Sakkari 7-6(2), 6-4.

Although Kasatkina’s campaign in Adelaide came to an early end with a second-round loss to Jaqueline Cristian, the 28-year-old arrives in Melbourne confident of producing a strong run. She will also look to deliver a good showing for the local fans, with Kasatkina currently standing as Australia’s second-highest-ranked women’s player, behind only world No. 32 Maya Joint.

One of the topics addressed by the former world No. 8 was the issue of social media abuse that tennis players have increasingly faced in recent years. Kasatkina has previously spoken about receiving hateful messages following disappointing results, and when asked in Melbourne, she acknowledged that the problem continues. “Unfortunately, yes. All I can do is close my comment section or DMs before matches. Even then, some messages still find you,” she said.

“Some people bet on tennis and blame us when they lose money. It still hurts a bit, but you try to understand that they don’t know anything,” the world No. 48 added. “We’re public athletes, so everyone has opinions. Abuse is not okay, but we don’t yet have strong mechanisms to stop it. I hope technology and AI can help in the future.”

Kasatkina also faces the difficult task of defending her 2025 result, when she reached the Round of 16 — her best performance at the Australian Open so far. Arriving as the ninth seed last year, she moved smoothly through the opening three rounds before being eliminated in the fourth round by American Emma Navarro.

“Last year was my best result at the Australian Open. But there are no easy draws anymore, so there’s no point in calculating chances,” she explained. “My priority now is getting my confidence and mental level back. Physically, I’m quite back, but last season left a mark. I’ll go match by match, tournament by tournament, working hard on all aspects of my game, especially mental strength. I don’t have regrets about how I’m doing my job — and that’s the most important thing.”

Kasatkina is set to open her campaign against 18-year-old qualifier Bartunkova, and if she advances, she could face a tough second-round clash against either Katie Boulter or 10th seed Belinda Bencic.