Daria Kasatkina responds to rival stealing her citizenship change statement
NewsWednesday, 21 January 2026 at 11:27
Daria Kasatkina provided an honest reaction to one of her rivals stealing her statement about her citizenship change.
Kasatkina represented Russia for the vast majority of her tennis career, but recently, she made a difficult decision to accept citizenship in a different country. In March 2025, Kasatkina announced she would represent Australia.
She announced the news through a statement on her social media profiles. Her statement was personal, explaining how challenging the decision to change citizenship has been. In the first part, she announced the change, saying she looked forward to calling Melbourne her new home.
"I am delighted to let you all know that my application for permanent residency has been accepted by the Australian Government. Australia is a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place where I feel totally at home."
"I love being in Melbourne and look forward to making my home there. As part of this, I am proud to announce that I will be representing my new homeland, Australia, in my professional tennis career from this point onwards."
A few months later, her former compatriot, Anastasia Potapova, made a similar decision. In December 2025, Potapova announced she would start representing Austria. The change itself wasn't shocking, as it was rumored before, but the way Potapova chose to announce it was. She essentially copy-pasted Kasatkina's statement, only changing the name of the country and the city.
"I am delighted to let you all know that my application for citizenship has been accepted by the Austrian Government. Austria is a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place where I feel totally at home."
"I love being in Wien and look forward to making my second home there. As part of this, I am proud to announce that starting from 2026, I will be representing my new homeland Austria, in my professional tennis career from this point onwards."Ka
Of course, many tennis fans and even some journalists noticed that the two statements were identical. That's why Potapova was asked about it during her press conference at the 2026 Australian Open. She defended her decision, saying she thought Kasatkina's statement was perfect, which is why she used the same words.
"Well, I don't find anything wrong with that because you cannot say it in a better way. And why not? And yeah, it was perfect words. I loved it. We loved it with my team, with everyone. So yeah, we gave it a shot. I don't think that it's something terrible that happened. I think the media just blew it up just because they didn't like me with the fact of it happening. I mean, who cares about posts, right?"
Kasatkina, too, was asked about the incident in an interview with Anna Chakvetadze. The Australian player admitted that she was surprised by her rival's decision to copy her statement.
"We played each other in the first round in Brisbane, and it would be awkward to start discussing it before the match, and then it was already too late, and I kind of let go of this situation. But of course at that very moment [when I saw her post] | was, like, You could have come up with your own statement, right? It's a very special occasion, you are not just withdrawing from a tournament, in which case we all post nearly identical statements."
"This is different. It's an important story, it's a serious step. I approached it differently because it was really important to me. But if she's fine with this, if [putting out] a statement like this is just ticking the box for her... well, okay, I guess? I mean, if she liked my statement that much, okay then..."
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