AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2025

Daria Kasatkina

Press Conference

E. NAVARRO/D. Kasatkina

6-4, 5-7, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Just talk us through your thoughts on the match. Quite a tough one, obviously, but just give us a few thoughts on it, please.

DARIA KASATKINA: Yeah, obviously it was a tough match, tough loss today. But overall, pretty happy about myself being out there and not starting very well, you know, not feeling the ball great, and then just with the fighting spirit, with the support of myself, good attitude.

So was able to turn this match around to get it to the third set. Everything decided at, like, very, very end of the match.

Yeah, it happens. Often happens on the slams, but yeah, I cannot complain because, I mean, usually by this stage of the tournament I'm at home with jet lag. Second week I'm still here. Not anymore, but yeah, I mean, best result here, so yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You kind of spoke about that, but that fighting spirit that you had in the second set to save those match points, what kind of changed for you between sets mentally?

DARIA KASATKINA: I don't know. I think it was, like, all the sets were pretty, like, they were just going and going like endless amount of points. You know, just there was little waves where someone was playing better than the other one and then it was changing a bit.

But I think starting, like, the beginning of the second set, like the level was pretty high. The level of fitness was very high. It was very long match with a lot of rallies, like high intensity. A lot of stress on court because of the scoreline and how the match was going.

Yeah, it was very tough. That's pretty much it. If we could have take away the result of the match, I would say that it was a good fight, yeah.

Q. In terms of obviously first round of 16 here, how long does it take you to get distance from the result to appreciate, you know, a really strong start to the season?

DARIA KASATKINA: As I said before, a couple of days ago, like the day before I felt great being first time in the second week, you know, flying. Now I lost, and everything feels like crap. I cannot do anything about it. It's normal. I cannot be, you know, now super happy and super excited and stuff.

First time, like, I don't remember last time I was leaving the match, you know, being not pissed about myself or pissed about anything. I was just exhausted and gave everything out there. I mean, she had definitely much more chances than me. I had just maybe in the third set two breakpoints on the 5-All, which she played incredible as well.

I mean, I'm thankful that I left the court alive so I'm able to sit here, because today, it was tough. It was a physical battle, yeah.

Q. It's the first time you've played her. What did you make of her game?

DARIA KASATKINA: Well, physically she's a machine. She's, like, yeah, I think it's her main strength, like the endurance, the movement, her ability to handle very long battles. Before our match, she won already three matches, super tough in three sets.

And, also, she's very stable. Her shots are all equal. She's very solid and disciplined, which makes it very tough to play against her because she's always there.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. She's showing very good results since last year. I don't know how many tournaments she played, how many matches she played. Maybe thousand (smiling). A lot, yes. We can definitely see the pattern, how she's playing, what her strength is, and she's using it very good.