MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Russia-born Australian tennis player Daria Kasatkina says she's ending the season early for the sake of her mental wellbeing after hitting “breaking point” on tour.
The 19th-ranked Kasatkina, a French Open semifinalist in 2022, said Monday she has been left drained by the constant travel on the tour schedule, a stressful process to gain permanent residency in Australia, and being unable to see her parents.
Kasatkina, who is engaged to figure skating Olympic medalist Natalia Zabiiako, told the Times of London in 2023 that she can't go back to Russia “as a gay person who opposes the war” in Ukraine.
“Truth is, I've hit a wall and can't continue. I need a break. A break from the monotonous daily grind of life on the tour, the suitcases, the results, the pressure, the same faces (sorry, girls), everything that comes with this life,” Kasatkina wrote on Instagram.
“The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally I am at breaking point and sadly, I am not alone.”
She added she plans to return in 2026 “energized and ready to rock”.
Kasatkina said she had been “far from fine for a long time” and her results on court had suffered while she “kept a lid” on how she felt for fear of seeming ungrateful.
She's the latest in a series of players including Elina Svitolina and Beatriz Haddad Maia who have opted to end their seasons early for extra rest.
Kasatkina's last match on tour was a straight-set loss to Sonay Kartal in the second round of the China Open on Sept. 27 and her last tour title was at the Ningbo Open in Oct. 2024.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
FILE - Daria Kasatkina, of Australia, returns a shot against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher Friday, while oil prices keep swinging in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% and inched above its all-time high set on Wednesday, even though the majority stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 168 points, or 0.3%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.
Intel led the way and is potentially heading for its best day since 1987. It jumped 23.8% after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.
Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped more than 12% in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.
A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Oil prices climbed this week on worries about the strait, but a potentially encouraging signal came Friday after Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was heading to Pakistan for talks.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June yo-yoed between roughly $103 and $107 in the morning and most recently was down less than 0.1% at $105.04. The price for Brent delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the market, fell 0.4% to $98.96.
On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 3.9% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.
That helped offset a drop of 22.5% for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.
Hartford Insurance Group fell 1% after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said sentiment among U.S. consumers remains sour. A survey by the University of Michigan found weaker sentiment in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.30% from 4.34% late Thursday.
Investors are also betting again on the possibility that the Federal Reserve could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year. The path appeared to clear Friday for President Donald Trump's nominee to chair the Fed, Kevin Warsh, after the U.S. Justice Department ended its probe into the Fed's current chair, Jerome Powell.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Warsh is the choice of Trump, who has been arguing loudly for lower interest rates.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Options trader Matthew Hefter, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist John Parisi works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
