The long-awaited Kostyuk title, the victory of Starodubtseva and the exit of Prikhodko

The final week before the so-called Sunshine Double tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami has come to an end. During this time, the girls competed for the trophy at the WTA 250 tournaments in Austin and Monterrey. The men took part in two ATP 500 challenge tournaments in Dubai and Acapulco, as well as the ATP 250 clay competitions in Santiago, Chile.

WTA 250 Austin

This tournament did not cause any special expectations, but as a result, Ukrainian fans will remember it for a long time. It will be remembered because in Texas, probably the main hope of our tennis has finally taken a big leap forward for itself in professional sports.

In general, everything went to this. Marta Kostyuk has been showing an incredibly stable game for her this season, almost always winning matches in favorite status. She has recently taken only one claimable defeat from Shelby Rogers in Adelaide so far. Marta was also somewhat disappointed against Bianca Andreescu, but there was only one set that failed. All other defeats were in fights with tennis players of much higher rank. In another tournament in Adelaide you could hold onto a troubled Jabeur and fight a weakened Bencic in Dubai, but that wasn’t enough.

Otherwise, Kostyuk always led the match to victory while only having a small game advantage, even if he didn’t display fascinating tennis. This was not the case before, and this did not allow us to take a qualitative step forward. Yes, there is one more drawback – matching tops. But in most cases, this is not necessary to win WTA 250 tournaments. Note that earlier Martha’s biggest wins were two ITF 60,000. Although there is always hope, it’s pretty stupid to demand that he win the most prestigious tournaments right now.

As for the top matches, there have been some shifts in that regard this year. In Australia, they managed to beat Elena Rybakina, who was “his secret player” at the time, who did not score points for winning last year’s Wimbledon. Also, you know – the representative of Kazakhstan reached the final at the Australian Open. Kostyuk’s toughest opponent in Austin was AO-2022 finalist Danielle Collins. The American has not yet shined this year, even beaten by strong enthusiasm. And how else not to worry? Kostyuk has lost almost all important matches in his adult career. Most – either before going to court, or psychologically already during the meeting. Every such victory is worth its weight in gold, which is the only way to progress.

The final was a little easier for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Kostyuk is still stronger than Gracheva as a tennis player. The latter was also the first final for Varvara and certainly no less anxious. Neither was able to consistently maintain a good level of tennis throughout the match, but Marta was better in key moments. She did what she’s been slowly getting us used to this season. Not every game, but still.

This victory is incredibly significant, since Kostyuk did not advance for almost a year and even lost ground. He will now break into the top 40 in the world rankings for the first time, and move up to 13th place in the Championship race. It’s too early to think about the Finals Tournament, but the Ukrainian player has amassed 711 points in a little over two months, which is 56% of all points he will get in the new edition of the WTA rating.

By the way, before the victory at Collins, Martha led a kind of anti-rating of tennis players who had never played in the finals of the WTA tournament. In it, she was by far the highest rated. Now the baton has been handed over to Anna Kalinskaya.

As for the rest of the Ukrainians in Austin, Dayana Yastremska, who replaced Angelina Kalinina at the base, initially dropped out and will now regress to 142nd place. In a pair, he decided to play with Kostyuk for the first time since last year’s Australian Open, but this time it did not work out – he lost in the first match. But Nadezhda Kichenok succeeded, reaching the semi-finals. For the first time in the WTA tournament, the Ukrainian Sabina Zeynalova played, won the first round match with her partner, but lost in the 1/4 final.

WTA 250 Monterrey

It turned out to be a very cool and competitive tournament in Mexico. Four of the top five seeds made it straight to the semi-finals, a dream come true for the organizers. Moreover, they were all flagged. Croatia’s Donna Vekic and France’s Caroline Garcia fought for the title. The trophy went to Donna Vekic. For the 26-year-old Croatian, this was his fourth career trophy and his first since 2021.

Lesya Tsurenko from Ukraine played here. Our qualifying queen passed the selection here without any problems, but in the first round of the basics she had to withdraw from the match due to a pain in her elbow against the future winner of the tournament, Vekic. However, the first set was won with a score of 6:2, so all tennis players want to be healthy first.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Caroline Garcia and Donna Vekic

ATP 500 Dubai

The main player in the UAE was world leader Novak Djokovic, who spent 378 weeks as world number one with a record record. The Serbian played successfully, although not as incredible dominance as in Australia. In the semi-finals, his 20-game winning streak was interrupted by former ATP leader Daniil Medvedev, who would later take the title. It was the third week of victory for him, he did not lose a set in Dubai. Medvedev is the main favorite before the American tournaments, where Djokovic does not fly because he is not vaccinated.

Another Russian, Andrey Rublev, became the finalist of the competition in Dubai. He was remembered for implying that he wanted to see world peace by writing “Tsoi is alive” on camera after winning the semi-final match. Judging by the comments of his compatriots, he caused only youth nostalgia in seriously ill patients. Good try though.

ATP 500 Acapulco

It has been difficult for men to play in Mexico this year. Injuries, cramps and withdrawals took place and Taylor Fritz was throwing up on the field. Kasper Ruud, who recently claimed the status of the world’s first racket, has once again failed. The Norwegian was defeated by 30-year-old Taro Daniel, making it his first victory against a top 10 tennis player. As a result, the title went to Australian Alex de Minaur, who had never won such big titles before. Tommy Paul, the finalist of the Acapulco competition, continues to surprise, he’s already placed fourth in the Championship race.

ATP 250 Santiago

Competitions in Chile were dominated by clay experts, who often could not boast of high results in difficult tournaments. Two South Americans made it to the finals, and Chile’s Nicolas Harry from Argentina surpassed Argentina’s Thomas Martin Etcheverri in the championship game.

It is also worth noting that Rafael Nadal, one of the highlights in men’s tennis, will drop to the second tenth in the world rankings in the future. This will be the first time since it debuted in the top 10 in 2005.

Ukrainians in Challenger series tournaments

Ilya Marchenko could not break the foundation of the competition in the USA and stopped in the doubles quarterfinals of the tournament in France, where Denis Molchanov, Manafov and Prikhodko initially lost. Alexei Krutykh and Vitaly Sachko did not play this week.

Ukrainians at ITF tournaments

The main surprise was the return of the 23-year-old Yulia Starodubtseva, who has been involved in university tennis for a long time, to the information field, where she is in good standing. Yes, and in the juniors Yulia performed quite well. The real question is whether he is ready to devote himself entirely to professional tennis or whether this is a one-time action. Anyway, but she did a great job at 25k in the Spring. Starodubtseva reached both finals and took the title in singles. Now another good tennis player will definitely not harm Ukrainian tennis.

Anna Poznikhirenko managed to win the match in the 60,000th ITF for the first time since 2019, but it was not enough for more.

Vyacheslav Belinsky, who showed a good performance in doubles last week, could not complete the quarter-finals of 15,000 singles held in Naples, USA, this time due to his injury. It hasn’t gotten higher this year.

off-site

Ukrainian tennis player Oleg Prikhodko made the most important debut of the week. Ukraine’s second racquet in doubles and the national team candidate in an interview diagnosed himself as a clinical idiot. There is no other way to explain his words.

Elina Svitolina announced that she will return to the field twice a week. First, she turned to her daughter Sky for help and made a small teaser. She later confirmed that the wait wasn’t long by answering a direct question on Instagram.

Marta Kostyuk continues to delight fans of Chris de Burgh’s work on the field, but earlier this week she also showed another interesting form from the Wilson company, with which she started a very successful collaboration this year. We love Marta in every color, the main thing is that she plays comfortably with this color. Everything seems to be improving so far, we will hold our fists.