Marta Kostjuk is not only fighting for a place in her first Grand Slam final in Paris, she is also representing her compatriots in Ukraine there. Explosive: Two Russians are presumably standing in her way.
04.06.2026, 04:31
04.06.2026, 08:34
SDA
These days in Paris are a bittersweet experience for Marta Kostjuk. While she sleeps at night, it rains drones and missiles on her home in Ukraine. In the morning, she looks anxiously at her phone. How much damage has the latest Russian attack caused?
It was really bad the night before her starting match in Paris, one of the "worst matches of my career", as the 23-year-old Ukrainian said after her victory against Oksana Selechmeteva. A rocket had hit the immediate vicinity of her parents' house. You probably don't get used to that even in the fifth year of war. "I switch off the news at night," says Kostyuk, who reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament in Paris for the first time and will face - of all people - Russia's Mirra Andreyeva on Thursday.
Ukraine not an issue for Andreyeva
Andreeva does not want to comment much on the subject of Ukraine. Just this much: "It doesn't matter that my opponent is Ukrainian," says 19-year-old Andreyeva. "I just try to play the ball that comes to me." An attitude that Kostyuk does not understand and criticizes in no uncertain terms.
"It doesn't frustrate me anymore," she explains. "If I couldn't block it out in the game, I wouldn't be able to beat her (Andreyeva)." But she still can't understand it. "They're all grown-up people. They know what's going on, they know what they're talking about. If they want to keep quiet about it, they have to live with it. I can't change that."
However, the Ukrainian would like to see a different attitude. "When your country kills people, I don't know how you can sleep peacefully at night." Kostyuk mentions Daria Kasatkina as a positive example, who preferred to leave the country and is now competing for Australia.
She is aware that she has a privileged life, is not in danger like most of her compatriots and many of her Ukrainian sports colleagues and has to live without electricity in some cases. "What I can do is draw attention to what is happening there. I am very proud of everyone who is fighting and proud to represent the Ukrainian colors."
16 wins in a row
Rockets also fell the night before the quarter-final, in which Kostyuk and Yelina Svitolina met for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament, killing a total of 21 people. Kostyuk won against her compatriot and, as she says, her idol in three sets. She is on a roll, is unbeaten on clay this year after 16 matches and won the tournaments in Rouen and especially Madrid.
In the Madrid final, Kostjuk won against Mirra Andrejewa, her semi-final opponent on Friday. Afterwards, as always when she plays against Russians or Belarusians, she refused to shake her hand. That will also be the case in Paris. And, Kostjuk hopes, in the final afterwards.
Svitolina has so far failed to reach the semi-finals four times - once in Australia, once at Wimbledon and twice at the US Open. Should Kostyuk reach the final - the first Ukrainian ever to do so at a major tournament - she would move into the top 10 for the first time. It would be more than just a personal success for her, especially when the blue and yellow flag is raised and the Ukrainian national anthem is played at the Stade Roland-Garros on Saturday. Kostyuk resists the Russian attack in her own way.
