Tennis-Kasatkina makes winning start as Australian player

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(Reuters) – Russian-born Daria Kasatkina said she had mixed emotions in her first match as an Australian player at the Charleston Open, but the support of the crowd helped her overcome her nerves to make a winning start.

Kasatkina had to compete on tour as a neutral after Russian and Belarusian players were banned from playing under their own flags due to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine but was granted permanent residency by Australia last week.

The world number 12 made short work of American Lauren Davis on Wednesday with a 6-1 6-1 win.

“I felt it would be strange, obviously being called a player from Australia. I couldn’t handle my smile. During the warmup it was the same,” Kasatkina told reporters.

“I’ve got such a warm welcome from the crowd. So altogether it made for this amazing mix of emotions. It wasn’t easy to step on court playing the first match with the new flag.”

Kasatkina, born in the western Russian city of Tolyatti, has not returned to the country in more than two years after coming out as gay and being one of the few players to have publicly spoken out against the war.

Russia has designated the LGBT movement as extremist and those supporting it as terrorists, clearing the way for serious criminal cases against LGBT people and their advocates.

Kasatkina said she was getting a healthy dose of Australian slang during conversations with her peers on tour.

“Everyone is calling me Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! I’m like ‘yeah, I am. What’s funny?’ Everyone is coming with a smile and trying to ask me something,” Kasatkina added.

“It’s great. I mean that’s a good reaction. I like it.”

Kasatkina faces American Sofia Kenin in the third round in Charleston.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)