Kostyuk: Due to the situation with the FTU, I don’t plan to play for the national team this year and, most likely, I won’t play next year either

Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk spoke about her plans for the end of the 2023 season. The third racket of Ukraine noted that she does not plan to play for the national team in the upcoming matches of the Billie Jean King Cup.

“My plans for the end of the season are to play San Diego, Guadalajara, Japan and China. I’ll look at the results, if I perform very well somewhere, then maybe I’ll miss a week, but for now the plan is to finish the season in China, ”said Kostyuk.

“Due to the situation with the FTU, I don’t plan to play for the national team this year and, most likely, I won’t play next year either. Olympics? As far as I know, I have fulfilled the standard for getting there and, of course, it is in my plans for the next year.”

Recall that in July 2022, the players of the men’s and women’s tennis teams of Ukraine wrote a letter to the International Tennis Federation with a request to remove Yevgeniy Zukin, Vice President of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation, from work. The letter was signed by Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk, Lesya Tsurenko, Katarina Zavatskaya, Lyudmila Kichenok, Nadezhda Kichenok, Sergey Stakhovsky, Ilya Marchenko. Zavatskaya subsequently withdrew her signature.

The Tennis Federation of Ukraine recognized all the accusations against Zukin as unfounded. Zukin himself called the accusations slander.

The next match the Ukrainian women’s team will play with the Netherlands in the playoffs of the Billie Jean King Cup. The confrontation will take place in Vilnius on November 11-12.

Kostyuk lost to Elena Rybakina in the first round of the 2023 US Open. Also, Marta, along with Elena-Gabriela Rousse from Romania, reached the second round of the US Open doubles.