Daria Kasatkina's second - and biggest - tournament since she was welcomed into Australian tennis has begun in confident fashion as she outclassed American Alycia Parks at the Madrid Open.
In her first match back in Europe since the news she was switching allegiance from Russia, the world No.14 was not at her sharpest in Friday's second round but was still far too good for the world No.53 on the clay courts that the Atlanta player routinely struggles on.
Kasatkina prevailed 6-2 7-5, helped a good deal by the American spraying around 62 unforced errors and serving up eight double faults.
Outplayed in the first set, Parks provided some genuine resistance in the second, powering into a 4-1 lead but eventually being hamstrung by mistake after mistake, 36 in all over the second stanza, as Kasatkina sealed victory in just over an hour and a half.
The win was sealed in spectacular fashion as Kasatkina launched a laser backhand down the line off a Parks smash.
"I'm a one-month-old Australian," Kasatkina had laughed in an interview with the Guardian published on Friday in which she also explained: "It feels nice, honestly, just to think of myself as an Aussie now and playing under the Australian flag, representing Australia on the big stage. I'm very proud of that."
She added that her great friend Daria Saville, another Russian-born player who became an Australian citizen a decade ago, had been helping search for apartments for her near to her own house in Melbourne.
Kasatkina, the only Australian representative left in the women's event, is probably at her strongest on the clay and in the last-32 will face a much sterner test against Russian 22nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Serbian Olga Danilovic 6-3 6-4.
The big guns kept firing with world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, winner in Madrid in 2021 and 2023 and last year's runner-up to Iga Swiatek, overpowering Russian world No.76 Anna Blinkova 6-3 6-4.
Sixth seed Jasmine Paolini, the French and Wimbledon finalist, eased past British star Katie Boulter, the fiancee of Alex de Minaur, 6-1 6-2, while third seed Jessica Pegula beat German Eva Lys 6-2 6-2 for her tour-leading 27th victory of the year.
But there was one big shock with Russian world No.39 Anastasia Potapova upsetting China's Olympic champion, eighth seed Zheng Qinwen, 6-4 6-4.
