She rose to prominence in 2018 by finishing runner-up to fellow up-and-coming player Naomi Osaka at the Premier Mandatory Indian Wells Open in a match regarded as representing a new wave of women's tennis.

Alongside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Liudmila Samsonova, Veronika Kudermetova, and Ekaterina Alexandrova, she helped secure Russia's first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2008.

[11] She began competing on the ITF Junior Circuit shortly after turning 14 years old and won her first title at just her second career event, the low-level Grade 4 Samara Cup.

[11] Towards the end of the year, she helped Russia reach the final of the Junior Fed Cup alongside Elizaveta Kulichkova and Alina Silich, where they finished runners-up to the United States.

[11] After failing to win a match at her only two Grade A events the previous year, Kasatkina finished runner-up to Belinda Bencic at the Trofeo Bonfiglio in May.

[11] At the last ITF tournament of her career, Kasatkina won her first and only junior Grand Slam title in the girls' singles event at the French Open.

She made her professional main-draw debut on the ITF Circuit in November, and then won her first career title at a low-level $10k event in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt a few months later.

She qualified for the singles draw through her ranking, and also entered the doubles tournament with Svetlana Kuznetsova, after Margarita Gasparyan withdrew due to injury.

[24] Nonetheless, she had a slow start to the season, not winning a single match at the Australian Open or the two Premier Mandatory events in the United States, the three biggest tournaments through March.

[45] Kasatkina remained in the top 50 until the very end of the season, when she lost the points she was defending from the previous year's WTA Elite Trophy.

[citation needed] She then played in the Gippsland Trophy and made the third round with straight sets wins over Mihaela Buzărnescu, with the loss of just two games,[81] and Polona Hercog.

[102] Her run started with a comeback from 4–6, 0–3 against Polona Hercog in the first round,[103] before avenging her loss against Kostyuk,[104] ousting Tereza Martincová and CoCo Vandeweghe to reach the final.

[106] She lost in the quarterfinals of the Eastbourne International to Jeļena Ostapenko[107] after securing her first top ten win in two years over Iga Świątek, losing just one game after dropping the opening set.

[109] Kasatkina reached her fourth final of the year at the Silicon Valley Classic, beating former top ten player Caroline Garcia, in three sets,[110] before coming back to avoid the upset against Magda Linette in the quarterfinals.

10, Barbora Krejčíková,[115] respectively, Kasatkina reached the third round of the US Open with wins over defending quarterfinalist Tsvetana Pironkova and Olympics silver medalist, Markéta Vondroušová,[116] but lost to fifth seed Elina Svitolina, in straight sets.

[117] Her season ended with a third-round defeat at the Indian Wells Open to Angelique Kerber, in three sets[118] and a surprising first-round exit to Anhelina Kalinina in the first round of the Kremlin Cup.

She first played the Melbourne Summer Set 2, a WTA 250 event, as the third seed; here, she reached the semifinals by defeating Anna Kalinskaya, Madison Keys, and Nuria Párrizas Díaz before losing to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova.

[citation needed] At the Italian Open, she reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal of the season and second of her career, where she was defeated by Ons Jabeur, after having a match point.

She defeated lucky loser Rebecca Šramková, qualifier Fernanda Contreras, Shelby Rogers, and 28th seed Camila Giorgi to reach the quarterfinals, matching her best result at the tournament from 2018.

[citation needed] Kasatkina played two tournaments on grass, Berlin and Bad Homburg; she was defeated in the quarterfinals by Maria Sakkari and Bianca Andreescu, respectively.

[123] At the Silicon Valley Classic, she reached the semifinals again defeating Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina,[124] qualifier Taylor Townsend[125] and world No.

[126][127] After getting eliminated by Bianca Andreescu and Amanda Anisimova in the opening rounds of Toronto and Cincinnati, respectively, Kasatkina won her sixth career title in Granby.

She defeated Greet Minnen, Magdalena Fręch, Nuria Párrizas Díaz, Diane Parry and Daria Saville losing just one set en-route to win the title.

[134] In the second event of Adelaide, after a first-round bye, she defeated Barbora Krejčíková[135] and Petra Kvitová in straight sets, before receiving a walkover from Paula Badosa to the final.

[146] In June, Kasatkina reached the final of Eastbourne, after defeating Emma Raducanu in straight sets in the quarterfinals, and third seed Jasmine Paolini in the semifinals.

She won the dead rubber doubles match with Ekaterina Makarova against Cindy Burger and Arantxa Rus as Russia lost the tie.

[156] She also participated in the World Group play-offs against Belarus two months later and played three rubbers, as Makarova and Svetlana Kuznetsova both opted to skip the tie.

[160][161] Kasatkina competed for Russia in 2019 during the zonal competitions, recording a win over Karen Barritza in straight sets in the only match she played throughout the week.

[62][note 2] Tennis journalist Steve Tignor compared her ability to naturally hit one-handed backhands despite typically utilizing a two-handed shot similar to that of former world No.

[185] As a result of her sexuality, Kasatkina is unsure of what will happen to her if she ever chooses to return to Russia to see her friends and family, but she has stated that she doesn't regret her decision.