How tennis' world No.16 became an Aussie – and will soon call Melbourne home

The Age

6 hours ago

London: Daria Kasatkina was envious. Born in the Russian city of Tolyatti, she perceived from her glimpses of Australia through touring the world as a tennis professional that the lifestyle was idyllic, and people were accepted regardless of their background or sexuality.
But Kasatkina had almost given up on becoming an Australian before arriving at Melbourne Park last summer.
Her British agent, John Morris, had informally approached Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley two years earlier. It was the first time the top-20 star – one of the few openly gay players on the tour – had broached the possibility of switching allegiances from Russia to Australia.
It was a big year for Kasatkina, who had announced in a life-changing 2022 interview that she was gay. She had also condemned her birth country's invasion of Ukraine, ensuring she became an even more divisive figure in Russia. A ruling in Russia's supreme court a year later classified the international LGBTQ movement as an extremist organisation, a move that effectively outlawed LGBTQ activism.
What followed was a challenging, and at times scary, few years for Kasatkina.
But that first conversation remained a well-guarded secret and the idea of representing Australia gained no serious traction despite Tiley being open to the possibility.
Australia was never mentioned in rumours about Kasatkina. She had instead been linked to Spain – where she spends significant time training – and to the homeland of her fiancée, Natalia Zabiiako, who is from Estonia.
Behind the scenes, though, Kasatkina's team was determined to explore every avenue to her playing under the Australian flag.