Five years after she turned pro, Daria Kasatkina was on the verge of making a bold career decision! The Russian tennis pro, who is soon going to battle in the final match at the Eastbourne International event, once lost her zeal to compete in tennis. Wondering how did that happen? 

Soon, after Daria Kasatkina turned pro, she made her mark on clay and won a Grand Slam at the Roland Garros tournament (2014) as a junior. After all, born into an athletic family, the former World No. 8 has athletic genes deeply embedded in her. After successfully claiming her Stuttgart Open title in 2017 as a teenager, Kasatkina became a force to be reckoned with on-court. But the story was yet to begin. She achieved massive success in 2018, by not only appearing as a runner-up at Indian Wells but also winning the Kremlin Cup and St. Petersburg Trophy in the same year. However, like every athlete, Daria Kasatkina faced a gloomy season in her career as 2019 began.

Struggling with her form, her ranking fell to the bottom half of the top 100. And when Kasatkina lost the quarterfinal match to Vera Zvonareva (3-6,6-7) at the St. Petersburg Open, Daria thought, this is it! Her morale broke down and she started entertaining the thought of retirement from tennis. But, luckily, she didn’t! And the credit for that goes to her coach at the time, Phillippe Daheas wirh whom she partnered for two years. Realizing how Kasatkina might have lost her interest in tennis, he told her to take up a different profession and change her career. 

Fortunately, that was all it took for Kasatkina to realize her dreams in tennis. After the conversation, she locked herself up in a hotel for a couple of days and reflected on the idea. At the end, Kasatkina laughed and replied, “I can’t do shit for a living, except tennis. I had to re-think quitting. It was a pretty dark and hardcore period.” Just like that, she gained her momentum back on-court after having mixed results in 2020! In 2021, Kasatkina rose to the top 30 once again, bagging two titles to her name. After that, she never looked back and what followed in 2022 was more titles (2) and her resurgence to the top 10 once again!  

Known for her speedy and diverse shot-making ability, Kasatkina led her country to victory at the Billie Jean King Cup as well (in 2020–21). After qualifying for two WTA 500 finals in 2023, the Russian tennis pro is back again at the Eastbourne International event, a place where she once won and also advanced to the final last year. This time around, on the opposite side of the net is Leylah Fernandez. And on-court, she is once again battling to lift the trophy amid the “windy,” and “tough” conditions.

Daria Kasatkina feels “great to be back at Eastbourne”

After successfully defeating Emma Raducanu and Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinal and semifinal respectively, Daria Kasatkina is on her way to achieving the same feat against Fernandez as well. However, the weather conditions on the court are far from easy. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old is happy to be able to be back on the grass!

After her victory over the Brit, she said, “It’s great to be back at Eastbourne and back on grass with the windy conditions and the seagulls.” Furthermore, Kasatkina added, “I was trying to be controlled because the conditions were very tough. You have to play and try to win as many points as you can and try to put as many balls inside the court as you can.”

However, Kasatkina is not ready to give up on her dreams! Therefore, before stepping into the grass at Wimbledon and playing against Zhang Shuai, Kasatkina, who once wanted to retire from tennis, now, intends to add more glory to her name!