Marta KOSTIUK: “Initially we were supporting Sakkari. I realize he’s more famous.”

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.