ROLAND GARROS

June 2, 2023

Daria Kasatkina

Press Conference

D. KASATKINA/P. Stearns

6-0, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Daria, an emphatic win today. What were your keys to overcoming such a hot young player today on the tour?

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, yeah, definitely I played a very good match. At the beginning also I saw that she was a bit tired. So, yeah, it happens.

After this moment I just realized I just know exactly what I have to do. You know, it happens sometimes that the match goes one way, but I think the level was pretty high, and I'm just happy that I was able to close the match and take all my chances.

THE MODERATOR: English questions.

Q. Daria, in English Daria means really, really quick. Your match today was really, really quick, and it seems to me that everything you do is really, really quick. Why are you quick all the time? Is it because life is too short, and you just want to do lots of things all the time?

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, I have to be quick because I'm not that powerful like many girls. Physically I'm not that gifted, so I have to be quick. I have to find ways how to win, how to survive. Yes, that's why.

So I have to do it with my legs, with the brain, and try to squeeze the maximum I can.

Q. You sounded a bit like a veteran there when you were saying that you saw she was nervous, and I'm just wondering if you feel like the more experienced player on the court when you play a lot of younger players these days?

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, to be honest, I catch one thought today during the match. She was on the other side, and I had exactly the picture of me, like, five or six years ago playing Halep on Suzanne Lenglen being 22 years old being super nervous.

Now it's reversed. So that was a little bit weird feeling, but this is how I would explain it.

Yesterday I had to prove that I have to put the level on the table, and today it worked pretty well. So, yes, I think this is what you can call experience maybe.

Q. You mentioned just now so I'm going to ask you about it. Your being 22 and being nervous. There's another Russian girl who is 16 who is here.

DARIA KASATKINA: She's not nervous (laughing). She's not. At 16 you're not nervous, actually.

Q. Well, that was my question. Where were you when you were 16 years old in terms of your development, and what do you remember from ten years ago?

DARIA KASATKINA: To be honest, I don't remember. Actually, I was here, but I was not playing in pro. I was playing juniors, and I was very, very nervous because I was playing against the same league.

It's a bit different when you are super young and you are playing against older players, and you have nothing to lose. Definitely you have no pressure, so it's a bit different. Yeah, actually that's it. Yeah, it's different.

I would say it's a little advantage. It's disadvantage, and it's advantage. So she's physically really strong. She's mentally strong. She's got the level. I mean, we can see clearly she's winning a lot of matches on tour already, and she's very young.

It's like in juniors when the older players, they're scared to lose to the young ones. So it's a little bit like that as well.

But definitely Mirra, she's got level for sure. Two consecutive tournaments, Madrid and here, she's winning good matches, beating good players. Definitely she's already very good.

Q. The other day you were talking about San Jose and not knowing whether --

DARIA KASATKINA: Now we know (laughing), yeah.

Q. So, of course, my question is: What are your thoughts on that? And in a way you could be the Mubadala Silicon Valley defending champion forever and ever.

DARIA KASATKINA: Or, defending champion in Washington. I don't know, maybe two defending champions, let's say.

I've never been to Washington. I've never played there, so it's going to be nice. Also, in a way of logistics, it's much better because everything, all the tournament in that swing, is going to be on the same coast.

I mean, San Jose is a very nice please. The tournament was excellent. The only problem was to travel to California and to go back then to Canada and Cincinnati and to New York.

So that was pretty difficult to travel like that. Now I think it's going to be more convenient.

Q. I spoke to Natalia in Miami about the vlog, and I wanted get some of your thoughts on it. It's sort of like if all the interesting parts we didn't really get necessarily from the Netflix documentary. I'm just curious what your sense is of adding this to your schedule and kind of being the person to document life on tour in the way that you're doing it.

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, good question. For me it's more fun. This is how I get away a little bit from the pressure thinking about the matches and everything, so I'm taking it as a little bit of not distraction; distraction in a good way. Like a little bit of an art thing.

Natalia is taking it very serious. She's really editing music, cutting everything, trying to implement new things always to see if it's the problem with the sound or with the picture. Like, she's really taking a lot of care.

We like to do these things, especially the feedback from the people, from the fans, it looks good. They like it. We're going to try to do more and more to implement maybe, I was thinking to maybe interview some of the chair umpires because it's going to be very interesting. I was thinking to talk with Amelie Mauresmo here. So, Amelie, if you are listening to this, maybe we can arrange something. It's going to be fun.

Yeah, because all these parts are always behind the scenes. Nobody knows about it. 95% of the fans, they see us as tennis players on the tennis court, and they don't know who we are outside of the court and how we live and what's going on, actually, behind the doors, behind the tennis court doors.

I think it's nice. If I would be, for example, the fan of some sport, I would definitely like to see more about it, more about the personalities of the players. Because we are definitely one person on the tennis court as a tennis player and completely different person outside of the court, and not many people know that.

Q. Just to follow up, I'm sure you envision playing on tour for many more years, but when you decide to stop, being part of the tennis media, is that something you think might be in your future?

DARIA KASATKINA: Maybe. Maybe. I like it, to be honest. I like to create things. I like to do this kind of thing.

Also, I would like to do charity stuff. I want to help young athletes. Let's see where and how because now it's very -- you know, the situation in the world sucks, so let's see.

But, yeah, I want to help and maybe to do something that's creative. As you said, in the media, because I realize that actually I like to be in front of the cameras especially, but not the photo shoots. Photo shoots I hate. It's not my thing at all.

I enjoy, like, video, like natural things.

Q. I'm just curious on that. When did you become comfortable sharing aspects of your life in front of the camera? Also, I bumped randomly into the guy who did the vlog for you, the Wimbledon vlog last year in Spain. I bumped into him yesterday for some reason. Have you spoken to him, and did he give you any advice on your vlog?

DARIA KASATKINA: On the vlog? Yeah, he tried (laughing). He tried. He was giving advice more about how to run the YouTube channel, not with the idea how to make a tennis vlog because he has no idea about tennis, to be honest. Yeah, he gave few advices.

The first question was, I forgot.

Q. When did you become comfortable sharing --

DARIA KASATKINA: Actually, I always was pretty comfortable to share things and everything. Just grow up a little bit, I become more open, got a bit fixed with my head. Yeah, that's it.

I was actually always pretty open and not a very closed person, let's say.

Q. People are always thinking of new ways to make the sport more interesting and exciting. If you had the chance to win a set by playing either a tennis tiebreak or hitting tweeners, what would it be and why? And do you think that if you get the best shot in the round you should get a walkover in the next round?

DARIA KASATKINA: Now I say yes, of course, definitely (laughing). No, no, of course, not.

Actually, the day before I was thinking, when I hit the shot, I was, like, Yeah, come on. Then, my God, I have to play another point now. It's just 40-30. Nobody is going to give me two points for this, unfortunately.

It actually was a lot of pressure because after this point you cannot just go and stop everything. You know, just serve a double fault or miss a second shot or something, so you have to be really focused.

Yeah, I mean, no, things have to stay tennis. Every point has to be equal.

Q. You mentioned Mirra. We were at her presser, and she said she's definitely super confident. She said Novak and Rafa won 22 Grand Slams; she wants 25. What are your thoughts about winning the first slam, and how hard is it to win one let alone 25?

DARIA KASATKINA: I would be super happy to win one (laughing). Extremely happy. Yeah, to win a slam, it's obviously a dream for every player. I'm not an exception in this.

Actually, talking about Mirra, you will see her in the next vlog. She was also not very shy there, I would say. She wasn't shy at all (laughing).

Q. There are a lot of traditions, customs, rules in tennis. If you were in charge of it all, what one or maybe two changes would you like to see in the sport?

DARIA KASATKINA: I don't know. Actually, I'm okay with most of the rules. One. On the slams, changeovers are just one minute. Excuse me, like one minute. The shot clock starts. I feel like the shot clock starts during the last rally of the game, to be honest.

It's like you see it and there's 45 seconds left. I'm sorry, but it's nothing. Especially for the guys who play five sets, for me it's a joke. It shouldn't be like that. It has to be -- and I don't know why. The rule is different on the ATP and WTA and on the slams, so I don't understand why it's different. I understand why. I understand TV and everything.

But honestly, we're the ones who play. I mean, two games can be, like, 10, 15 minutes, crazy rallies playing in the heat, and then you go and you have 45 seconds to sit and to breathe. This is for me not good.

Q. So how long do you think it should be?

DARIA KASATKINA: One minute, 30 seconds, like what we get used to, actually. I don't know why it has to be different. When it's actually more difficult to play, especially for the men to play five sets. They play longer, and they have less breaks.