Russian-born former world No 8 has found a source of optimism in Australian ‘chill’ while getting used to peculiarities of life in her new country
Daria Kasatkina wants Australia to call her something else. “I think ‘Dasha’ is better,” says the former Russian. “Daria is more like an official name which is written in my passport, so I prefer Dasha because it’s just less … formal.”
There has been upheaval in the life of the 28-year-old, much of it in the past 12 months. She became engaged to her partner, Natalia Zabiiako, a former elite figure skater, better known as Natasha. “It works the same way, like, with my name,” Kasatkina says.