By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday September 30, 2020

 

After an ankle injury in Rome threatened her Paris campaign, Daria Kasatkina is up and running and in good health at Roland Garros.

Photo Source: AP

When Daria Kasatkina left the court in tears after injuring her ankle during a battle with Victoria Azarenka in Rome two weeks ago, it wasn’t clear if the Russian would be able to prepare herself to compete in Paris. 



Yet somehow, be it sheer will or luck of the tennis gods, she's made a remarkable recovery and is feeling fit on the terre battue of Paris.

On Day 3 at Roland Garros Kasatkina powered past Harmony Tan 6-1 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Cheery and quick to joke in press after the win, Kasatkina says she is thankful just to be playing.

“I didn't have, like, huge expectations, and I still don't,” Kasatkina said. “So I'm just happy that I'm able to play, able to compete, able to slide on clay again, playing matches.”

Kasatkina, who defeated Sabalenka in their only previous meeting last year in Beijing, is a former quarterfinalist in Paris that has improved her Roland Garros record to 10-4 on Tuesday. She’s also the 2014 Girls’ Singles champion at the French Open, and she has always kept the city -- and her favored red clay -- near and dear to her heart.

The Russian says she feels 100 percent at the moment, and is pleased that she can use her defensive skills to help her win points on the slow-playing terre battue.

It's quite an achievement, given where she was a few weeks ago.

“Me and my team, we did everything possible for me to be ready to play here,” she said. “On the court I feel absolutely free. I was moving 100 percent. My defensive game is there, which is the most important.”

When she injured her ankle during the first set of her match with Azarenka (with the pair tied at 6-all in the opening set) at Rome, the Belarusian came to comfort Kasatkina on the court and later said some kind words about her game.

“She's such a talented player that I felt like is always on the verge of kind of that breakthrough where she's going to pick it up,” Azarenka said. “I felt like this was maybe closer to be her moment. So it's very unfortunate that she has an injury. You know what, I feel like and I hope that this moment is going to be a turnaround for her. I know it's an adversity, but I hope she takes the best out of this situation and pushes forward. I feel like she can. I wish her that. I hope she's able to recover before French Open.”

It has not been an easy run for Kasatkina, who burst onto the WTA scene when she reached the Indian Wells final and Roland Garros quarterfinal in 2018. She also won the title in Moscow and cracked the top 10 late in the season. But she started to slide down the rankings in 2019, and now sits at No.71 in the world.

Kasatkina thinks her lukewarm run could be coming to an end soon. She’s healthy and positive. And the talent? Well, that’s always been sublime.

“In Rome me personally, I felt the changes,” she said. “Maybe you could see this. I mean, I'm enjoying again being on court, competing, not just trying to suffer and fight like crazy for every point. I mean, I still do, I'm fighting for every point, but just in a different way, with pure joy, which I was trying to find for the last, I don't know, more than a year.

“I hope I can catch it and keep with me as long as I can.”