Marta Kostyuk won an amazing match in the Wimbledon 1st round against Maria Sakkari. The match was delayed twice because of the rain and Marta lost the first set without scoring a single game. Eventually, Kostyuk staged a fantastic comeback to win 0-6 7-5 6-2. The Ukrainian player burst into tears soon after winning the match point.
Later she explained her reaction:
“That means a lot, it was my 15th attempt to beat a top ten player and that was something I wanted to check off. I’m happy that pressure is off my shoulders, I feel like I’ve been getting closer but you still have to do it.”
Following a first-round loss at the French Open, Kostyuk was jeered off the court last month for refusing to shake hands with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
The most vocal Ukrainian player regarding how the sport has handled the invasion of her nation, Kostyuk, 21, was left feeling physically shaken and extremely enraged by the Roland-Garros reception.
Marta commented: “What happened in Paris is in the past now. It was questionable behavior from the French, I didn’t understand it and I don’t think I ever will. The support for Ukraine here is very different though and that means a lot.
It’s been a long month physically and emotionally since Paris and when the draw came out I wasn’t the happiest person in the room. She was a very challenging opponent and I put a lot of expectations on myself.
Talking about the rain breaks, Marta added: “I just couldn’t understand what was happening in that first set, I couldn’t put anything together and everything felt rushed. I think the rain breaks helped and I used those opportunities really well. I had a good cry, I was so emotional. I was playing well, but it was going so bad. In the second rain break, I just accepted that I’d lost. I knew my world would not be destroyed.
The whole situation in Ukraine helps me reconsider a lot of things, tennis is my job but I look at things differently. This is not the biggest thing in the world.”
Kostyuk in Wimbledon, ranking, and results in 2023
Now ranked no.36, Marta owns a compiled 19-13 record in 2023. Kostyuk is playing at the moment in Wimbledon where she toppled the world no.8 Maria Sakkari 0-6 7-5 6-2.
The Ukrainian has won 1 title in 2023 in Austin.
Maria Sakkari in 2023
At the moment ranked no.8, the Greek played her last match on the 5th of July when she capitulated to world no.36 Marta Kostyuk 0-6 7-5 6-2 in the 1st round in Wimbledon (draw).
Currently, during this season Sakkari owns a composed 24-14 match record. Maria Sakkari’s best result of this year was getting to the semifinal in Australia, Linz, Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid and Berlin.
Marta Kostyuk and Maria Sakkari squared off 3 times. Their current head to head is 2-1 for Sakkari. Before, the last time they played, Marta Kostyuk won 0-6 7-5 6-2 in the 1st round in London (Wimbledon) on the 5th of July 2023.