Homosexual and opposed to the war in Ukraine, the Russian Daria Kasatkina will play for Australia – Liberation
Australian tennis has a new weight national. The 12th world player, Daria Kasatkina, announced in the weekend that she would play in the future under Australian banner after obtaining permanent residence in the Oceanian country. « I am proud to announce that I will now represent my new home, Australia, in my professional tennis career »welcomed the 27 -year -old player on her Instagram account. « I will always have respect and affectionate recognition for my roots, but I am very happy to start a new chapter under the Australian flag »specifies the semi-finalist of Roland-Garros 2022which has been the top of the WTA ranking for several years, with a breakthrough in eighth place in the world in October 2022. « A warm welcome in the Australian tennis family, » dasha « »reacted on social networks the country’s tennis federation, of which Kasatkina becomes the best classified representative.
Kasatkina, born in the city of Togliatti, in southwest Russia, has not returned to her country for more than two years, after having come out and was one of the few players of the circuit to have publicly expressed against War waged in Ukraine by Russia. She therefore represents all that the Kremlin honors: a regular criticism of the Kremlin, a sort of opponent of Putin who does not say her name, not hesitating to qualify as « nightmare » conflict, while denouncing The attitude of the regime with regard to the homosexual community.
Moscow describes the LGBT movement as an extremist and those who support him as terrorists, thus opening the way to serious criminal prosecution against people from this community and their defenders. “With everything that happens in my country of origin, I did not really have a choice. As an assumed homosexual, if I want to be myself, I have to take this step. And I did it ”explained Kasatkina at a press conference in Charleston, the United States, where the neo-australian is engaged and where for the first time she will officially play under Australian banner.
Very popular on the WTA circuit, whose backstage she shares via many videos posted on her YouTube channel, « Dasha » lives for the moment in Dubai with the Russian skater Natalja Zabijako and trains in Spain. She now intends to settle in Melbourne.
In Russia, this change in sports nationality is officially taken back. « She made her choice, we have to accept it without hatred. She has not lived in Russia for a long time and the state has not invested directly in it. Entourage in Australia has influenced it, but that is part of the sport ”reacted in particular the former skater Olympic and deputy champion, Svetlana Sergueïevna Jourova, with the Russian media Sport.ria. Ditto for Dmitri Svitchev, the president of the sports committee at Duma, the Russian Parliament: “This is his personal choice. Russia offered him opportunities, but we have other emerging talents. The main thing is that Daria does not forget that Russia has done everything possible for it to realize as a tennis player ”thus develops Dmitri Svitchev.
Daria Kasatkina is not the first Russian player to have recently changed sports passport. Before her, Varvara Gratcheva, Moscovite by birth, had obtained her French naturalization last year, after having lived eight years in Paris. She had been able to represent France at the last Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024.
