Daria Kasatkina's first tournament back in Europe representing her new homeland of Australia has been ended by one of her old Russian teammates.
Kasatkina, in her second tournament since announcing her new allegiance to the green-and-gold, was edged out 6-3 7-6 (7-3) on the clay at the Madrid Open by Ekaterina Alexandrova, who was her colleague when Russia lifted the Billie Jean King Cup in 2021.
The 30-year-old Alexandrova had never had much of a record on the surface that Kasatkina normally enjoys, but she's transformed her clay-court fortunes this season by reaching two semi-finals in her last two tournaments in Charleston and Stuttgart.
