Wimbledon star Daria Kasatkina admitted that she was so nervous heading to her first-round match, she threw up. The 28-year-old regained her composure to see off Emiliana Arango in straight sets and book her spot in round two.

But that was only after a rough morning. Kasatkina was one of Tuesday’s early starters at SW19 and she arrived at the tournament on a run of dreadful grass-court form. The Australian, who was born in Russia, lost in the first round to Sonay Kartal at Queen’s, Wang Xinyu at the Grass Court Championships in Berlin, and Lulu Sun at the Eastbourne Open.

That, she said, did not exactly fill her with confidence going into her opening showdown at Wimbledon. But Kasatkina converted six of her 16 break point opportunities and won 63 per cent of the points on her first serve to come through 7-5 6-3 on Court 14.

After sealing the win, she explained: “Coming into the tournament after losing back-to-back matches is not easy. I’m happy with how I was able to manage those nerves because the start of the day was very, very tough for me. The little accident happened completely out of nerves.

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“There was nothing else wrong with me except this. Not having enough confidence, losing a couple of matches, the first match of the day, this doesn’t help me to feel more calm. As soon as I stepped onto the court, it was much better. But before the match, I was so stressed, maybe too much.”

Kasatkina reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2018 and the semi-finals of the French Open in 2022. The honorary Aussie now sits 18th in the WTA rankings, but she maintains that the stresses and strains of fighting for prize money and ranking points are still very much present.

“We’re humans, we work hard and we want to achieve big things,” she said. “When not everything is going our way, we get frustrated and nervous. There’s for sure nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something you cannot control.

“We cannot just always feel or think positively because it’s not always good. Sometimes you have to face the reality. And if you see that you’ve done something wrong outside of the court, you have to face this, accept it and try to fix it.”

Kasatkina will face Irina-Camelia Begu in the second round – an opponent who, at 34 years old and ranked outside the top 100, will begin as a big underdog.

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