‘Homeless’ Daria sends Woz packing
Daria Kasatkina admitted on Monday that reaching her first Slam quarterfinal was such a shock that she almost left herself homeless in Paris.
The 21-year-old Russian, who was the crowd favourite at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships where she finished runner-up, stunned world number two and Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
However, despite being assured of $380,000 euros ($445,000) by reaching the last-eight at the French Open, the world number 14 had only booked accommodation until Tuesday.
“My house which I rent expired today (Monday), and I have to change to the hotel,” she revealed after reeling off three straight games in just 17 minutes to finish her tie against Wozniacki which was suspended at 3-3 in the second set overnight because of darkness.
“I was renting it until June 5 and today we decided to move so not to do it on a match day. We are moving to the hotel. It is what it is.”
She added: “I booked it through Airbnb. So you have to pay in advance. And you never know what is going to happen and if you are in the middle of the second week it’s fine to go to the hotel — I’m not complaining.”
Before Monday, Kasatkina had never before got beyond the fourth round at a Slam and had fallen in the third round on her only two previous visits to Roland Garros.
But she went into her match with Wozniacki with form on her side having defeated the Dane twice already in 2018 in St Petersburg and Indian Wells where she went onto reach her first premier-level final.
Kasatkina, the 2014 junior champion in Paris, is a player who enjoys the challenge of taking on the game’s biggest names.
Her win on Monday gave her a sixth victory over a top-two woman — of active players, only the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova have had more success in that category.
Despite being considerably shorter than most of the other leading players — she stands at 5ft 7in (1.70m) — Kasatkina boasts a game of rich variety.
That was a key factor as far as Wozniacki was concerned.
“She doesn’t give you two of the same balls, so she changes the pace,” said Wozniacki who was attempting to make the quarterfinals for the third time.
“But she tries to slow it down, and then, once she has the opportunity, she’s going to go in and hit one really hard and then slow it down again.
“I think the slower the surface is, the better for her. She has very good hands and good angles and everything, so I think that suits her.”
But Kasatkina refuses to think of herself as a champion-in-waiting by emulating Lativa’s Jelena Ostapenko who stunned the sport by winning the title 12 months ago.
“I try not to think about it. I’m just trying not to put pressure on myself, because someone won a Grand Slam already last year,” she said. —