Wimbledon 2018: Kasatkina breaks through the confidence barrier at Slams

Surrounded by the ivy-covered facades of the All England Club, Daria Kasatkina told wtatennis.com how she has “broken the wall” at the Grand Slams. She believes she can win this summer's Wimbledon title. 

Once Kasatkina was happy just to have been in the main draw of the majors. No more. After her run at the 2018 French Open, where she reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final, the 21-year-old Russian now trusts in her game like never before, and so considers herself to be a contender for the Venus Rosewater Dish. “It's mental. I broke the wall. Before, you come to a tournament just to play. And now I feel as though I can go further into tournaments and that I can really compete on the big stages. That's the big difference,” Kasatkina said while sitting on a wooden bench at the Wimbledon practice courts. 

“My run in Paris gives me confidence - now I feel as though I can do more, and that's very important. That's the most important thing in our sport. Can I win Wimbledon? Of course, that's my goal to win all the big tournaments. Maybe it happens this year, maybe next year or maybe in a few years, but I will do everything I can to make that possible. That's why I am playing,” said Kasatkina, the No.14 seed, who faces Australia's Ashleigh Barty in the third round on Saturday. 

Read more: Saturday's Wimbledon Order of Play

With so many of the top seeds going out early at Wimbledon this year, there are opportunities for young players such as Kasatkina. But she said she didn't want to distract herself by counting the number of seeds to have made an early exit, for fear of filling her mind with “trash”. “I'm trying not to read about it and not to talk about it. It's trash talk - you don't need to put these things in your head. You shouldn't be counting how many seeded players are out of the tournament, or who beat them, or anything like that. If you want to achieve something, you just have go focus on yourself, on your results and your improvements,” she said. 

According to Kasatkina, the players are not discussing the fall of the seeds. “We don't talk about that in the locker-room. I go in, take a shower, go to the locker, get changed and that's it,” she said. 

The “beautiful weather” in London this summer means that the ball is bouncing a little higher at Wimbledon, according to the Russian. She even went so far as to suggest that the courts are playing more like clay than grass, and that the slower conditions suit her game. “The court are playing a little bit differently. The bounce is a little higher than when it's slippery and the ball skids through," she added. "The surface is slower. These conditions help me. I like to play when it's sunny and the ball is bouncing like on clay. At the end of the first week, the surface is more like a clay court than a grass court. It's especially like that on the baseline, where there's not as much grass. 

Read more: Saturday's Wimbledon Match Points

“I haven't played many Wimbledons - this is my third - but it's definitely a bit different. It's only rained once so far in the tournament, and that was just a little bit in the evening. The sun is shining, and the weather is so good. It's great because we don't have any delays with matches suspended because of rain. So the players, like the spectators, can enjoy the beautiful weather and tennis.”  

In between her own matches, Kasatkina has been watching as much of the football World Cup as she can: “Russia could play England in the semi-finals, but with everything going on, anything can happen.” 

You might say the exact same thing about the women's singles at the All England Club.