WATCH: Daria Kasatkina hijacks US Open pre-match interview, promotes YouTube channel

FLASHBACK: Kasatkina faced Sabalenka prior to the US Open last month in Cincinnati.

NEW YORK—It’s never a bad time to shoot your shot.

And Daria Kasatkina made the most of a primetime opportunity at the 2023 US Open, pivoting her pre-match interview with Rennae Stubbs into an extended infomercial for Zabiiako & Kasatkina, the YouTube channel she shares with girlfriend Natalia Zabiiako.

Asked an anodyne question about her upcoming fourth-round encounter with No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, Kasatkina responded with an incredible pitch to a stunned-silent Stubbs.

“Well, honestly, we spent the whole day yesterday thinking how to promote my YouTube channel, and I think this is it” she says, looking straight to camera. “Guys, subscribe. Just search my surname on YouTube and you’ll find it.

“And in case the match isn’t going to be interesting,” she added with a degree of prescience for what would be a 6-1, 6-3 loss to the reigning Australian Open champion, “you can always watch the YouTube.”

Kasatkina and Zabiiako, a former Olympic figure skater, have become the premiere documentarians of life on the WTA tour, uploading weekly vlogs featuring recaps of the sport’s biggest events, player interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage of Kasatkina and her team.

“All these parts are always behind the scenes,” Kasatkina explained at Roland Garros. “Nobody knows about it: 95% of the fans, they see us as tennis players on the tennis court. They don't know who we are outside of the court and how we live and what's going on, actually, behind the tennis court doors.”

Did the gambit pay off? From early numbers on Social Blade, it appears Zabiiako & Kasatkina, which cracked 20,000 subscribers in the first week of the US Open, enjoyed their biggest bump of the tournament, gaining over 1000 more just under 24 hours.

That’s something to like (and subscribe).