ROLAND GARROS

May 28, 2024

Daria Kasatkina

Press Conference

D. KASATKINA/M. Frech

7-5, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: A nice victory today for your first round here at Roland Garros, Daria. Can you give us your overall thoughts on your performance today.

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, thank you. It was a tough match, a really tough opening match. Yeah, I had to work hard to be able to get this win, and I'm really happy the way I was able to manage this pressure of the first round of the slam and, plus, to show I think a good level of game.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I just wondered how you found the conditions on court.

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, today, as you know, it was raining all day, so today the court and conditions are pretty heavy. The balls are taking the water a lot. Yeah, it's pretty slow and heavy. Plus, we were playing under the roof, thankfully. A bit of humidity as well. Yeah, that's basically it.

In these conditions it's difficult to make a winner. The rallies are longer, and it's how it is. I think every year in Paris happening something like that.

Q. How do you prepare and adapt for those conditions? Like, are you conscious that you have to play slightly differently?

DARIA KASATKINA: No, of course, you know that the rallies are probably going to be longer, that you are probably going to get more balls, your opponent is probably going to reach more balls, so it's going to be very difficult to finish the rally to win a point. So it's going to be a bit of a -- you know, you're going to lose some points with mistakes because it's going to be longer rallies.

Yeah, you're going to get less points with the serve. In my case, yeah. It is how it is.

Then in the sunny weather it's opposite. You can get more points. You can get more aggressive. Depending on the conditions, you have to adapt.

Q. Andy Murray is one of the players who might be leaving tennis this year. I just wondered how much you think he'll be missed, and especially as someone who has been an advocate, speaking out on how much he likes women's tennis and that sort of thing, how important it is to have male allies as well?

DARIA KASATKINA: Andy is the best. We're going to miss him a lot. His British sense of humor was amazing. Also, like, the guy is such a character on court. Yeah, he was one of the best players in the world. So I really enjoy him playing. I was sometimes, you know, trying to learn something from his game.

Yeah, but unfortunately, the time goes on. We see now actually this tournament a lot of players announced that it's their last Roland Garros. Yeah, it's like this. That's life.

Q. Daria, are you okay physically after what happened on the court, and what happened? It was your knee?

DARIA KASATKINA: Yeah, I got scared because I had, how you call it, hyperextension in my leg. Thankfully everything went good. I finished the match playing good. Also, after now we checked with the doctor, everything is fine. Yeah, all the work in the gym for the prevention stuff pays off.

Q. Your interview with CBS just aired a few days ago. Have you had any reactions in the locker room or elsewhere?

DARIA KASATKINA: I'm not sure anybody from the locker room watched it. I didn't watch it. I don't like to watch my interviews. I just -- videos with me, no. I feel embarrassing, like this. So, no, there was nothing about it.

Q. About your video blog, Netflix is not here anymore, but you were doing your video blog and already have 50,000 followers. What's your --

DARIA KASATKINA: We won this competition, yeah (laughing).

Q. What would you like to share with that? What's your idea behind it?

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, basically just to show behind the scenes of tennis tour and to show how we are. That we are not just tennis players which people see on the screen while we are playing, but also there is always something else.

I remember my ex-coach, he loved to say, Behind every forehand, there is something else. There is a story behind every forehand you miss or every forehand you won. There is something else behind it. So that's what we are trying to show.

Plus, you know, in the funny way interacting also with the players, to know the players more. Yeah, just to show life on tour, how it is.

I was saying before sometimes, yes, it's luxury, especially on these kind of tournaments, but many times it's not. Also, there's a lot of sacrifice, struggling, hard work. So that's basically what we want to show.