Two conflicts and one victory. How did the national team of Ukraine play with the Czech Republic in Turkey?

Ukraine women’s tennis team completed the Billie Jean King Cup World Final qualifying match against the Czech team. The so-called house meeting for Ukrainians took place on the courts of the Mega Saray hotel in Belek, Turkey.

At this meeting, Ukraine was represented by Marta Kostyuk, Dayana Yastremska, Katarina Zavatskaya and Lyudmila Kichenok. The draw was not bad for us, Marta had to play first. This meant that he would play both of his games with absolute tournament motivation as the first point. Lyudmila Kichenok and Dayana Yastremskaya applied for a doubles match, but the fifth match was not needed to determine the winner.

Yastremska arrived in Belek later than everyone else and managed only one full-fledged training session, so Mikhail Filima appointed Zavatskaya as the second number of our team during the draw. Moreover, we unexpectedly learned on Friday that Dayana will make it to the Stuttgart courts on Saturday during the qualifiers for the WTA 500 tournament, which shocked her. It turns out he wasn’t planning to play at all on Saturday, so why did he come?

Also, I was a bit surprised by the choice of coverage at the beginning, all the Czechs on the field clearly feel great. But Marta said in an interview that Ukrainian women understand that a single coat will not give them a noticeable advantage. That’s why we decided not to complicate our lives at the beginning of the dirt season. That’s a logical explanation, girls, it’s understandable.

first game
Marta Caustic – Marketa Vondrousova – 2:6, 1:6

Kostyuk and Vondrousova did not play on dirt before their national team matches this season, so it was difficult to predict what to expect from this fight. There were more questions about Marta because, after winning her first WTA title in Austin, she hasn’t been able to catch the wave of stability we’ve finally been feeling this season.

Vondrousova put up a fight already in the first game, taking a quick break. Unfortunately, this predetermined the entire subsequent course of the match. Kostyuk was visibly nervous and mistaken, at the reception he could hardly oppose anything to the Czech. The real fight was in the Ukraine matches, almost all of them had to be gnawed in the fight. In the first game, Marketa managed to get one more timeout, after which Kostyuk had no chance in the first set.

Game two started the same way, but in game four Martha had a double break point to bounce back. It was not possible to implement it and then it finally became clear that the first point went to the Czech team.

second game
Katarina Zawatskaya – Barbora Kreychikova – 4:6, 3:6

Before the match, many underestimated Zavacka, but actually Katarina played well. Her match with Kreychikova started very strong, and until the failed volley on the game ball in the sixth game, the Ukrainian seemed a little more confident than Barbora, who had previously lost both singles for the national team. The pressure on Kreychikova for the result was clear, but her class turned out to be higher, finishing game sixth and confidently taking the lead with a 5:2 timeout. At the end of the set, Katarina managed to get two games in a row, but failed to defend her serve.

The real struggle in the second installment took place in the first games. Barbora was better here too, taking two against one timeouts. With a score of 4:1, Kreychikova was no longer giving the Ukrainian a chance in her serve, the win was deserved.

third match
Marta Caustic – Barbora Kreychikova – 3:6, 6:1, 6:4

In the beginning, it was this match that had their highest hopes. There are several reasons for this, this is not Martha’s good performance in previous games with Kreychikova and Barbora’s small and not the most successful experience in the game for the national team.

But things started out hard for us. Marta lost four of her first five games and her opponent couldn’t stand anything against her, even if it wasn’t the best game. They managed to regain the time-out in game seven, but after the pass, the Czech won two games, closing the first game.

From the second set, Kostyuk began to play more solidly, this was especially felt in the reception of Barbora’s first serve. Kreychikova earned a few easy points, which allowed the Ukrainian to take the lead very quickly and confidently win the second game. In the third set, Czechia equalized the situation, the fight continued on an even ground almost until the end of the match. After the 4:4 score, Marta unexpectedly managed to earn triple hidden match points, which happened on the third attempt. There were no problems in filing for the match, at that time Kreichikova was already mentally broken.

For Martha, this was the highest rated victory in her career, placing only her third in her career against top 20 players (with 19 losses). By the way, two of these victories were in the matches against Kreychikova. In in-person meetings, Marta now has 3:1 against Barbora, which is good news.

fourth game
Katarina Zawatskaya – Marketa Vondrousova – 3:6, 4:6

The beginning of this duel was interesting. Vondrousova did not catch her game and Zavatskaya played at a high level from the first seconds. After three games played, the Ukrainian was ahead 3-0 by two intervals, but we were not very happy. Marketa remembered being one of the best clay tennis players in the world and set out to show tennis at the highest level. Katarina tried to oppose something, but the forces were unequal. The tactics of left-handed Markete’s constant play under the deadly forehand, where he cuts the Ukrainian backstroke diagonally and often finishes rallies with actively won balls, are not entirely clear. As a result, Katarina got a “hidden steering wheel” in the first set.

Vondrousova was the first to break the time-out in the second game, Katarina responded immediately and was able to make the score 4:2 in the sixth game, but the double break was not achieved. After that, Vondrousova herself took a break, and in the eighth match she dodges the Ukrainian’s breaking points. There was no chance to change the situation anymore – Marketa again won the match for the national team, now 9 wins in 10 Billie Jean King Cup singles matches.

What’s next?

As in the USA a year ago, the Ukrainian team failed to perform a miracle and beat the favorites. Now the Czech team will play in the World Final on November 7-12, the location is yet to be determined. Australia and Switzerland (finalists of the last draw), the home side or wild card holder and 8 other elimination winners will also play here.

The Ukrainian national team will again have to defend its place in the qualifying round at the stage of the playoffs. Here, besides us, there will be the same losers (only 9 teams) and winners of regional tournaments (7 teams). Before the draw, all teams will be divided into seeded and unseeded according to the updated country ranking.

two engagements

The day before the draw, Lyudmila Kichenok announced her engagement to longtime coach Stanislav Khmarsky. Lyuda is already 30 years old, her sister Nadezhda got married in 2021, so this is not surprising.

But the Ukrainians did not stop there. After the end of the match, it became known that Marta Kostyuk was also engaged. In an interview with Sport.ua, Marta said that was three weeks ago, but the engagement was not made public. Her chosen one was a man named George, who also played tennis.