Russian rising Star Daria Kasatkina spoke about her life on Tour in Wuhan, talking to magazine Sport360 after successfully entering the competition from the qualifying draw. As ranked 28th in the world, the 19-year-old would've been granted a direct acceptance but, she admitted, she and her brother (who usually helps her signing up for the tournaments), "both missed this one, because there are a lot of tournaments and we just missed the deadline".
"We realised a bit late, in Cincinnati, we were like ‘oh my God, what about Wuhan?’ And thank God Beijing is mandatory and you’re automatically entered because if not, that would have been a problem too", she added.
Despite the inconvenience, Kasatkina successfully entered the main draw of the Wuhan Open, reaching the third round, where she lost to Madison Keys.
The Russian teen, despite climbing the rankings to reach the top 30 since the beginning of the year, had been struggling lately, collecting three straight first round losses after the quarterfinals reached at the Rio Summer Olympics.
Kasatkina: "My opponents now know who I am".
The young Russian spoke about her matches becoming more difficult because her opponents had learnt to know her game.
"It’s getting more difficult because now opponents know who I am so they know how to play against me, what I’m doing", she told. "And now I have to maybe surprise them and obviously improve my game and be focused on every opponent and every point because it’s very important".
In Wuhan she collected her first wins after the Olympic experience. On about how she's handling the losses, she said "I’m getting better, I think".
The life on tour, however, proved to be hard for her, also considering her young age.
"I’m feeling it in my body. It’s very difficult, not even physically, mentally it’s very difficult to go from Russia to America then to Brazil, then again America, then Asia, and all this. It’s very difficult really and I have to get used to it", she said.
Kasatkina: "I'm still hungry, but it's becoming more difficult".
This had been the first year for the 19-year-old being fully active on the WTA Tour, as during last year she had played mainly on the ITF Tour. One year later, she made her top-30 debut. Asked how she felt about it, she said that "it’s difficult to feel it when you’re in your first year on tour. I’m just playing and I’m trying not to put pressure on myself because if you do this you’ll feel bad".
"Before, when I was just starting to play professionally on the WTA, everything was so new for me, I was coming on court and I was so hungry – I’m still hungry but now it’s getting more difficult to play against good opponents", she added.
"But still I’m enjoying it and practicing, I’m here and it’s unbelievable because two years ago I couldn’t imagine that in two years I would be here."
She then added that everything is acting very quickly for her, and considered her first year on tour as a "really good season for me. And for example, after a few matches in a row and I am already so pissed, so sad and my coach is telling me ‘Dasha, what is happening? Look you just lost a few matches, please be patient, enjoy, don’t put pressure on yourself!’".
Kasatkina: "Qualifying for Zhuhai is a great target".
Kasatkina said she doesn't like think about her raking and results, preferring to take it "one tournament at time".
Despite that, she admitted that the WTA Elite Trophy (a tournament where the players ranked between 9 and 20 will compete in at the end of the season) could be major goal to end her year.
When asked to call the best moments of her season, she talked about her win against Venus Williams in Auckland back in January, match who drew the attention on her game at the very beginning of the year.
"It was the first tournament, first match of the year", she said, "and I was playing against Venus Williams on centre court in Auckland and it was really special for me".
She also indicated the match against Serena Williams at Australian Open and her quarterfinal run in Indian Wells as very special moments. The experience at the Olympics had also been very important to her; the 19-year-old said that she hopes this experience will help her to be "really ready" for her next experience, "hopefully" at Tokyo 2020.