Marta reached the top 16 tennis players at the Australian Open for the first time in her career
Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk commented on her exit to the 1/8 finals of the singles on Australian Open 2024.
“Today was a very, very psychological match. She was closer than I thought to victory. I actually took the match out of her hands. I’m very, very happy with today’s victory. I don’t think this is my best performance, but I think what matters is winning. Winning matters, so…”
“I think I can play in a lot of different ways. I think I’m trying to find the right balance between playing aggressively and playing defensively because there are players who are just very solid players. They cannot be defeated by simply playing very aggressively. So I feel like this is my strength, but I never realized it before. Yes, of course, today I would like to play more aggressively, but there was pressure because I was not an underdog, like in the match against Mertens, and I did not know what to expect. That was not easy. As I said, it was a very psychological match.”
“In general, I prefer and always work on my aggressive game rather than defensive play. But I feel like there are some matches where you really just have to get through and overcome. Yes, I’m very happy that I have this opportunity, because before I thought that if I didn’t play aggressively enough, it would be a defeat. It’s not easy to play this way because I’m definitely not an aggressive player like Rybakina or all these tennis players who hit hard. It’s just not my natural game. This is not my identity. This is not who I am. It’s been a long process and a lot of work has been done, but obviously I’m very happy after almost three years to play at this stage, which is my personal best. It’s a very nice feeling.”
Marta beat Elina Avanesyan in the third round of the Australian Open 2024 singles. After losing the first set (2:6), the Ukrainian showed character and scored six breaks over the next two games, which allowed her to triumph in the match (6:4, 6:4).
Kostyuk’s next opponent will be another neutral tennis player, Maria Timofeeva. Also, Elina Svitolina and Dayana Yastremskaya continue to fight at the Australian Open in singles.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
