Dasha Kasatkina, I want to start by asking, from your background with your parents being elite athletes themselves, was it probably a destiny that your career was going to be in sport?
DASHA: Well probably, but you know the destiny of the kids that’s most of the times is in the hands of the parents. They decided to, they wanted to put me into the sport, they did, and it worked out really well. But if their decision would be to put me in the music for example, for sure it wouldn’t work out, but it would be their decision, so yeah, it was the destiny because my parents they were a lot into sport, my brother loves sports so much so yeah, their choice was quite obvious.
What do you love about this sport, about tennis; it’s what you do for a living?
DASHA: Well honestly, it's the only thing I love about tennis is tennis itself. It's the game of tennis I like it so much to play. You know, to hear the sound of the ball coming from the racquet, so like the sound of the ball touching the ground and you know this beautiful feeling of hitting the ball, it's awesome so probably this one, just the game itself.
Do you find it a tough life?
DASHA: Well, it is, it is not easy honestly. It's obviously a lot of challenging you have to sacrifice a lot of things in your life. For example, for me I left my hometown when I was 15 or 16 years old and since then I was visiting my parents maybe twice a year, three times a year not more often than that. You are basically dedicating your life to tennis, traveling a lot actually it's a crazy the travel schedule that we have, so yeah if you want to achieve something in this sport you have to give everything and the success doesn't, it's not guaranteed even in this case so this is really tough.
So, on that point about achieving things, what drives you and what is the ultimate goal you want to achieve?
DASHA: Well, l every time you win a match you get a emotion which you probably can't find anywhere else so this is like one thing and everyone wants to achieve as much as possible, to win every tournament I mm participating in, winning a Grand Slam of course it's a childhood dream, so yeah these things are driving you. It's not easy when you're not getting it especially for example if you are losing in the finals when your goal was so close, but you didn't get it, you feel a bit like a kid who had a candy in front of him and someone just took it away. So yeah, kind of that but of course the winning feeling of like winning feeling it's the one for sure.
I know you won Charleston in 2017 but really your notoriety started happening when you reached the BNP Paribas Open final in Indian Wells the following year. From then to now do you think you've changed at all and if so, how?
DASHA: It's been a lot, how many, six years already since that point so it's a long time. It’s a long time for a person to change a bit which is normal we are changing all the time, so on and off the tennis court for sure I learned a lot of things. I've been through some tough moments I’ve been through some great moments where I learned a lot. Through difficult moments I learn through nice moments I enjoyed so for sure I grew up and become more mature. Hopefully a bit smarter than before but that's the type of this one I I'm not sure about (laughing), so yeah I've probably just got more mature maybe a bit more bright but I'm still a kid in a more grown body.
What are you most proud of with yourself?
DASHA: That I'm not afraid of speaking my mind and I'm not different at being myself and yeah, I would say with this one and I'm quite proud to be looking in the mirror and seeing who's in front there.
Interesting you say that because my next question to you is do you see yourself as somebody who is outspoken or just the fact that you are honest and straightforward?
DASHA: Well, most of the times I'm just answering the question since I say things which are in my mind so I'm just not very afraid of saying what I think and this pretty much it.
Dasha can I just ask you about the whole experience of coming out - was it tough, was it easy, what was the reaction you felt?
DASHA: Well, it wasn't easy for sure because to do something like this publicly is not a thing plus if we count the country I'm from, it was more difficult, so but I'm more than happy that I did it and I can be myself and I can do whatever I want and not to think about the consequences or anything; it's what people will think about and I just live my life. Let’s say I am fair to myself and fair to everyone else so for me it's important to live without regrets and so far I'm doing not bad to be honest because I feel good with myself.
Because I remember your now manager John Morris who I have known for many, many years tweeting about how proud he was of you when you did do that.
DASHA: John is always trying to be proud of me, thanks to him for that, he's a great man we've been on this road going shoulder to shoulder since 2019 through tough moments in my life and his life too but we were well to each other and that's the great thing that he's saying this about me because I'm really very grateful to him and I'm proud of himself too because he's been through tough moments himself as well too.
Do you feel you're a confident person or maybe still a little bit shy?
DASHA: From time to time, depends on the day. Sometimes I can be a confident person, sometimes it's not; depends on the situations (and) people around. It's not a permanent thing unfortunately so it depends on the circumstances but I'm becoming more confident than before and that's a good sign.
For sure. I want to ask you about the vlog. What gave you’re the idea, how did it happen? Do you see it as fun or work? A lot of the players like it, Coco Gauff has spoken about it in the past. Tell me about the vlog.
DASHA: Well, the idea was like came up together with my girlfriend, so I was kind of you know together made a decision to make it. For me it's fun, for her it’s work, a lot of work. She’s very dedicated to that; like she can work during the night if she has some deadlines in her head, so yeah for her it's more for a work or a job, but for me it’s just kind of thing where I can give my thoughts or like be creative let's say you had to give more creativity, but for her she didn't go over there behind the scene job which is super, super tough and she's trying to you know as I said give to the people the content as soon as possible which is very tough honestly but she's doing the subtitles herself so it's we call it house production because everything done only by us.
Which is fantastic as it gives you some different interest besides practice courts and matches, doesn’t it?
DASHA: We just want to show tennis players, we are not only tennis players, we are humans too and yeah, we have a life and personality outside of the tennis courts and we can be different persons on court and outside of the court so also to show that the struggle we can face during those times and stuff so yeah. We're trying to do it in the fun way but sometimes it's just so much fun so and it is how it is we are not trying to you know cover it up or trying to show that it's some luxury stuff and everything we just show everything the way it is.
What would be some of your weaknesses and I don't mean this in a serious sense, I mean it in a lighter sense, is it a weakness of shopping, is it chocolate is an ice cream, is it food, what are your weaknesses, what are your interests besides playing and the vlog?
DASHA: Spending time with the people I like so much to spend time with the people I love with the friends you're not just talking in multiple things please. When I'm outside of the tennis court, outside of the tennis club I don't want to hear anything about it because it's enough, we have more than enough. I want to like spend a good time with the people I love for me like the best activities when we are at home to go to the supermarket with Natasha (Zabiiako her partner) and just to get groceries and I would get something for our apartment; some kind of thing just too put it in our apartment to make it nice. It makes me so happy.
Nice; and my final question for you Dasha, is Coldplay sang When I Ruled the World, if that was you what would you do if you had to rule the world?
DASHA: I would just stop all the wars straight away. I know it’s not that easy, but we are trying to imagine something which is impossible so that's the first thing I want.
