Daria Kasatkina Didn't Change Her Citizenship, Abu Dhabi Open Explains Controversy
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The 2025 Abu Dhabi Open has clarified a bizarre mistake it made regarding Daria Kasatkina's nationality.
The Abu Dhabi Open draw was made a few days ago. It included some fascinating potential matchups, including a possible quarterfinal match for the defending champion, Elena Rybakina, against Ons Jabeur or Jelena Ostapenko.
Kasatkina, like Rybakina, received a bye in the opening round. However, she will face a challenging round-of-16 match against either McCartney Kessler or Ashlyn Kruefer, two dangerous American players.
Rybakina defeated Kasatkina in last year's final in Abu Dhabi. Despite that disappointment, the former French Open semifinalist still had a great tournament and probably feels at home in Abu Dhabi.
How well-known Kasatkina is to the organizers who made the mistake during the main draw ceremony was very surprising. They listed her as Spanish despite Kasatkina never representing Spain during her career.
The confusion may have stemmed from Kasatkina's previous long-term residence in Barcelona. Kasatkina's actual nationality is Russian.
Another theory about the confusion might be that since she has criticized the Russian government for its illegal invasion of Ukraine and policies against gay people, that might have made someone think she renounced her previous nationality. She wouldn't be the first player to do that.
However, the Abu Dhabi Open social media pages confirmed that one of its suppliers made the error during the draw and apologized, calling it an administrative mistake that had been corrected.
"We sincerely apologize for the error made by one of our suppliers during the live draw, whereby an incorrect nationality was shown alongside the name Daria Kasatkina. This was entirely an administrative mistake and has now been corrected."
Luckily for whoever made the mistake, Kasatkina comes across as one of the friendliest and most easy-going people off the court on the WTA Tour. Other players might have created a significant issue if they were listed under the wrong nationality.
Kasatkina is also among the classiest players on the WTA Tour. She proved that during the 2024 Ningbo Open final trophy ceremony. After a match filled with several momentum swings, she defeated teenage prodigy Mirra Andreeva in three sets.
Andreeva found losing the WTA 500 final too much to bear and began crying during the ceremony. Kasatkina rushed to her compatriot and hugged her to try to provide some comfort.
That was among the most heartwarming moments of last season. However, Kasatkina is also an honest person who is not shy when it comes to giving her honest opinions about burning tennis topics.
An example was expressing disagreement with the rule that allows players who finish among the Top 20 in ranking points to qualify for the WTA Finals. That rule change at the start of 2024 allowed Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova to qualify for the season-ending event.
Emma Navarro would have qualified under the previous rules but missed out. That is an interesting topic with diverse opinions, but Kasatkina's irritation about Krejcikova qualifying despite having fewer points is understandable.
