Russian-born tennis star Daria Kasatkina has spoken about her shock decision to . The world No. 12 announced the news on Friday night, and at this week's Charleston Open, she is officially competing as an Aussie for the first time.

The 27-year-old has now shed light on what drove her to accept permanent residency Down Under, admitting she had "no choice" but to leave Russia because she is openly gay. Kasatkina came out in 2022, revealing her relationship with Russian-Estonian figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.

Kasatkina is starting life as an Australian tennis player at the WTA 500 event in Charleston, where she is the No. 5 seed. As of Monday, when the official WTA rankings were updated, the eight-time title winner now has the Aussie flag by her name.

"It's my first official day as an Australian player. Honestly, it feels different, I'm not going to lie. It's emotional for me," she said.

"I have to get used to it. But I'm really happy to start this new chapter of my life representing Australia on the big stage."

Kasatkina's decision to leave Russia didn't come as much of a surprise. As well as being openly gay, she has publicly condemned the country's actions in the war against Ukraine.

In 2023, she revealed she had not returned to her birth nation since before the war began more than a year earlier.

But the 27-year-old has now explained that it was her sexuality that was the driving force behind her decision to switch nationalities. She continued: "With everything going on in my previous country, I didn't have much choice.

"For me, being openly-gay, if I want to be myself, I have to make this step, and I did it."

Kasatkina said Tennis Australia reached out first about her decision to seek Australian residency. But the former world No. 8 was more than happy to start a new life Down Under, where she could be herself.

"Australia is the place where I feel that I can be myself and I really am really happy to have this privilege to be part of this beautiful country," she told .

"I think it's obvious to say that Australia is a very welcoming country, very open-minded. "I mean, everyone is welcome there.

"And as I said, Tennis Australia, they also made this step forward to me. We, together, worked through this process and stuff. And of course, without their support and initiative, I don't think this would be possible.

"So I'm really thankful to them. And yeah, everything happened pretty fast, and I'm just really happy about it."

Kasatkina has a bye into the second round at this week's Charleston Open, where she will face either wildcard Lauren Davis or qualifier Jamie Loeb.

When she finally takes to the court for her opening match, the fifth seed will have to get used to being introduced as an Australian player.