Daria Kasatkina on her first summer representing Australia (The Sit-Down)

In our final episode of The Sit-Down for 2025, Viv and Matt are joined by Daria Kasatkina, who in March made the switch to representing Australia. It was a big decision in an emotionally intense season that the 28-year-old ended early due to burnout. Now more refreshed, Kasatkina chatted from her base in Spain, where she is preparing for her first Summer of Tennis representing the green and gold. She takes listeners right back to the beginning: how her parents, both professional athletes themselves, set her up for success, and how she developed her crafty, nuanced style of play. She reflects on her junior Slam success, memories of watching idol Rafael Nadal, and career milestones which include cracking the top 10 in 2018 and reaching the 2022 Roland Garros semifinals. Plus, there’s some hot tennis takes in there too. This is a candid conversation with one of the sport’s more thoughtful stars, and one who is excited to continue representing her adopted nation – where she loves the nature, coffee and people – in 2026.  

Listen to the full episode here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Twenty twenty five was so big for you because of
your decision to represent Australia in March, and then we
also heard that you you got engaged in Italia as well.
So like some incredible milestones for you. How do you
reflect on those and what happened in twenty five?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh yeah, it's the year has been very intense. Let's say,
you know, end core, it wasn't I mean, also I
cannot complain it could be way way it worse, but
you know it could be better as well, you know,
didn't match my.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Expectations, let's say.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
But outside of the court, it means been a wonderful year.
You know, you're getting engaged, you know, a big I
think one of not getting engaged, which is also I
think second my big decision in my life. But I
think for the moment, the biggest decision in my life,
it's been to switch to Australia, one of the most

(01:02):
you know, difficult, not in terms that I wasn't sure
to do that, but you know, difficult to accept that
I have to go something through something like this to
to live a happy life. That was I mean it's
still difficult to accept that.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, I couldn't just.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Be born somewhere where I can be myself and not
to worry about all those things. But I mean, that's
my that's my road route. This is the challenges I
had to face. And finally, yeah, in uh in March,
I unknowns that I'm going to represent Australia and I'm

(01:47):
I mean, I'm super proud to represent the country which
accepted me quite if I can say quite easily, because
it's some think I'm not used to because during my
you know, years career in life, it's been you know,

(02:08):
it's tough. It's been a tough and difficult way and
I mean I have to get used to a little
bit that.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I have to.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, I can relax on in this way. So yeah,
it's been a tough year where I had to change
my way of thinking as well, you know, and let
myself relax a little bit because now I can. And sometimes,
you know, you don't know which way it's going to

(02:42):
bring you. Sometimes these changes, you know, brings you up
straight away, sometimes brings you down, I mean in terms
of performance, because you never know how it's gonna affect
your performance. In my in my case, it was not
not the way I expected it because I thought that

(03:04):
maybe it will lift me up so much, where actually
I little bit settled down, which is also maybe good
for me because my nurse system was over stimulated for
the past four years, where probably my brain said, finally
we can breathe, finally we can relax a little bit,
so maybe which I also needed because honestly, the last

(03:26):
four years been too intense and too demanding. So yeah,
I mean, finally I can say that it's a it's
a fresh start and ready to go, you know completely. Yeah.
I've been working a lot, you know, with the with
the therapist, with the psychologist, you know, and I mean

(03:50):
it's been a full year trying to understand myself and
you know, get back on the right track and realize
like what I have to do now, because before it
was about about not sacrifices and.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Personally suffering.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
If you'd like to hear the rest of our conversation
with Drek Casekena, make sure you head to the sit
down wherever you're listening to this, or you can find
the links in the show notes.