Ukrainian tennis player Martha Kostyuk After defeating Maria Sakkari in the first round of Wimbledon 2023, she held a press conference:
– You can compare the difference between your last match at Roland Garros and the end of today’s match. How did you feel? When you left the court later, the reaction of the audience was not so positive. You were hurting so much today.
– It was just a contradictory behavior of the audience in Paris. I mean, anyone can do whatever they want, but I don’t get it. And I guess I’ll never understand. Obviously there is a different support here, but at the beginning of the game they were mostly supporting Sakkari. I understand that because he’s more famous than me, and he’s also a top ten player. So, everything was fine (smiles). I was very happy that they supported me at the end of the match and throughout the match.
I can say it’s been a long month. When the raffle results showed up, I was obviously not the happiest person (smiles). I felt like I played well but faced dangerous opponents, so regaining my trust is not that easy. Actually, I had high expectations of myself, so I am happy that I was able to change the course of events today.
– What did you think after the first set? How did you spend your time when it was raining?
When the first timeout was given, the score was 5-0 and “absolutely”, I had no idea what was going on (smiles). I didn’t understand it all in my head. I was in a hurry. I wanted to win and I think I wanted to do it the wrong way. The second pause helped me calm down even more. I have more time to prepare. Then I tried to play each lottery. Frankly, I don’t know how this match would have been if it hadn’t been for the rain these days. I made good use of these breaks. I can’t say yesterday was the worst day [из-за переноса матча]. But yesterday I felt a little burned out. This is no ordinary match. I felt pressure And it wasn’t easy for me to start today.
– You said that Ara helped you. What exactly did you do?
“I don’t know, I just took advantage of the pause itself. Everything happened so quickly in the match. It’s clear that you didn’t have a chance to take such a break during the match. It all happened so fast, I made a mistake without too much effort. It had to be stopped somehow. Rain helped. After the second break, he went to court. even when i came back i was in a very emotional state but before that the feelings were such that i kind of froze and couldn’t do anything about it so i cried well both times it helped because i already felt a certain helplessness, they say i’m playing well but why is everything so bad I can’t understand how it went bad. It helped me pour and then I felt like I took everything as it was. After the second hiatus I accepted that I had already lost this match and it turned out that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. So despite the loss, my world won’t fall apart because of it. And this feeling helped me. Every I seemed to drop everything and then I tried to play dot to dot.
– What does this victory mean to you, given your opponent’s situation and all the circumstances?
– This victory means a lot, because it was my fifteenth attempt to beat an opponent from the first ten. This was on my list. I am very happy that this pressure has been lifted from me. I had played Sakkari twice before, losing by the same score twice, so I knew he would be ready to play with me. I knew he would be in a good mood and would fight to the end, and I was ready for it.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
(Melbourne) The ex-no 1 world Naomi Osaka (current 17e in the WTA rankings) qualified Tuesday in three sets for the second round of the Australian Open.
Crowned in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021, the Japanese won 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against the Croatian Antonia Ruzic (65e).
The four-time Grand Slam winner will play in the next round against Romanian Sorana Cirstea (41e), who started the last Australian Open of her career at age 35 by eliminating the German Eva Lys (39e).
Entering the court with a white parasol, a wide-brimmed hat and a long white train, Osaka started the match with her feet on the ground to quickly lead 3-0.
Ruzic recovered to 3-3 before again losing three games in a row and the first set.
The Croatian responded in the second round, winning by the same score.
In the decisive set, Osaka broke from the start to break away at 2-0, but Ruzic came back to her level again before taking her throw in to lead 4-3, service to follow.
This time it was the Japanese who held on to get back to 4-4, before inflicting a shutout then a new break on Ruzic to seal her qualification with a final winning backhand, after almost 2 hours 30 minutes of fighting.
Osaka played her first Grand Slam match on Tuesday since her semi-final at the United States Open in September, her best run in a major tournament since she returned to the circuit in early 2024 after the birth of her first child.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
(Melbourne) World No.2 Jannik Sinner, double title holder, benefited on Tuesday from the retirement of Frenchman Hugo Gaston (93e), injured his abdominals, to qualify for the second round of the Australian Open.
The 24-year-old Italian was leading 6-2, 6-1 when Gaston threw in the towel.
“It’s the abs that have given up a little. I felt the pain in the middle of the first round. I called the doctor immediately at the end of the first round to get an anti-inflammatory,” explained the Frenchman who suddenly felt “like a little stab”.
He fell during the first round after returning a drop shot from Sinner, but he assured that the injury and the fall were not linked.
On the other hand, the pain in his abdominals bothered him a lot “on serve and on high balls”.
“I saw that he was not serving at a very high speed, especially in the second set,” commented Jannik Sinner in his post-match interview on Central.
“I am very happy to qualify, to return to this place that I particularly cherish […]but that’s not the way I wanted to win this match,” added the world No.2.
Sinner’s next opponent will be Croatian Dino Prizmic (127e) or the Australian James Duckworth (88e).
For his first official match of the season, the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner took a little time to settle down, notably having to save three break points in the first game.
But once he managed to take Gaston’s serve in the particularly tight sixth game, Sinner unfolded, winning the next seven games. A few moments after snatching his only game in a one-sided second round, the Frenchman informed his opponent that he was giving up, after a little over an hour of match.
“Giving up pisses me off a bit,” Gaston commented. But hey, on the other hand I can’t afford to play at 50%, even 100%, to beat Sinner…”
Undefeated since his retirement at the beginning of October in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, the world No.2 scored a sixteenth victory in a row on Tuesday and joined Carlos Alcaraz (1) in the second round of the Australian Open.er), Alexander Zverev (3e) and Novak Djokovic (4e).
“I felt very well prepared, we worked a lot physically and on the court” during the offseason, said Sinner, who skipped the Davis Cup finals in Bologna in November to have an additional week of preparation for the 2026 season.
For his part, Lorenzo Musetti, seeded fifth, progressed due to the retirement of Raphaël Collignon of Belgium in the fourth round.
The score was 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 and 3-2. The nature of the injury has not been released.
Shelton hits hard
The 23-year-old American Ben Shelton inherited probably the worst draw, in the person of the first ATP player not to have been seeded, the Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
But last year’s semi-finalist, who made his name by reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2023 despite never having left the United States, was uncompromising and won 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).
PHOTO MARTIN KEEP, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ben Shelton
“It’s always difficult to face Humbert in the first round, but I remained very calm, very focused on my game and I played better and better,” he stressed with satisfaction.
He will play in the second round against the Australian Dane Sweeny (182e).
Monfils eliminated in the first round of his last tournament in Australia
Gaël Monfils, who will end his career at the end of the season, was eliminated Tuesday in the first round of his last Australian Open by the inexperienced Australian Dane Sweeny (182e world) 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5.
The 39-year-old Frenchman plays his 23e and final season. Ex-world No.6 currently 110ehe was playing his 20e Australian major since his first participation in 2005. He has reached the quarter-finals twice, in 2016 and 2022.
PHOTO PAUL CROCK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Gaël Monfils
“My journey began here in 2003 (in qualifying, Editor’s note). We are in 2026 and it is the finish line, but thank you all for accompanying me, you were great,” he told the audience from the court while generally only the winner of the matches, before the final, speaks on the field.
“I fought four hours again today, but this guy (Sweeny) is very strong. I wish him good luck,” he added to his winner.
For the latter, the victory is particularly beautiful, because in addition to having beaten one of the great names in tennis of the last twenty years, he offered himself his first victory in a Grand Slam tournament.
“It’s like I’m in a series… it’s incredible,” he commented. Before the match started, his goal was “win or lose, enjoy the chance to be there.”
As usual, the most popular French player since Yannick Noah spared no effort. And despite the encouragement of the public – in particular from a group of French people – the youth of his opponent (24 years old) visibly prevailed, as Monfils appeared so tired.
Broken one last time to be down 6-5 in the fourth set and the Australian’s service to follow, Monfils failed to reverse the situation.
“You’re here, you played your 20are Australian Open and you have entered a very closed circle: you are six players from the Open era (since the 1969 edition) to have reached this bar,” tournament director Craig Tiley told him, who came to greet him on the court.
“We want to thank you for your career, your attitude and the way you taught us how to play this wonderful game. Well done,” added Tiley.
Monfils’ last match in Melbourne, greeted by a hearty ovation from the public with “thank you Gaël” sung in the stands, lasted 3 hours 51 minutes.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
Russian tennis player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Danish Clara Tauson reached the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Pavlyuchenkova and Towson beat the duo Lyudmila Kichenok/Katie Volynets (Ukraine/USA) with a score of 6:7 (6:8), 6:4, 6:4. The meeting lasted 2 hours 52 minutes.
The next opponents of Pavlyuchenka and Tauson will be the winners of the meeting Guo Hanyu/Kristina Mladenovic (China/France, 16) – Alicia Parks/Dayana Yastremskaya (USA/Ukraine).
Grand Slam Tournament. Australian Open. Melbourne (Australia). Hard. Total prize fund: about $75 million
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