![]() Kostyuk’s next opponent will be a much tougher test - Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who is seeded fourth. ![]() “Suddenly, you’re the one who has to win, which actually shouldn’t be like that.”īencic hopes Kostyuk “keeps enjoying all of this and remembers the feeling how it is when you’re excited first time, first Grand Slam, and to keep it this way.” “When you win one, two matches, everybody focuses on you,” said Bencic, who has since struggled with injuries and lost her second-round match at the Australian Open only two days after an upset win over Venus Williams. Kostyuk is only eligible for 10 tournaments at age 15.Įven so, young players are still “hyped a lot,” said one-time Swiss prodigy Belinda Bencic, who was a U.S. Part of the reason breakthroughs like Hingis’ are so rare these days is that the WTA Tour has limited the number of tournaments teenagers can play. This has already brought her a great deal of attention - the kind that has proved difficult for other young players in the past. With her run in Melbourne, Kostyuk has become the youngest player to reach the third round since Martina Hingis made the quarterfinals at 15 in 1996. Not like, ‘Hey, how are you.’ That was nice.” “Ivan is always helping me when he sees me,” she said. ![]() The impact on her game has been immediate. 3 Ivan Ljubicic, who currently coaches Roger Federer. She’s represented by a high-profile manager, former world No. Since winning the Australian Open girls title last year, she’s made the jump to the pro level. But she wanted to spend more time with her mother Talina Beiko, a former pro tennis player and now coach, so she gave up acrobatics to focus on tennis at 11. ![]() Kostyuk was an acrobat growing up and was so talented, she placed fourth in the Ukrainian national championships - as a child. (Kostyuk blamed serving into the sun: “You throw the ball and you hit the sun, actually.”) While serving for the match, she clubbed a ball off the frame of her racket that nearly hit a spectator in the crowd. A power player who hits big off both sides, she kept going for her shots even when she misfired.Īnd misfire she did aplenty. The stats weren’t pretty - 45 unforced errors to just 22 winners - but Kostyuk handled the pressure well. Perhaps an even tougher challenge, she followed that up with a convincing win over Australian wild-card entry Rogowska in front of a partisan crowd at Margaret Court Arena, the No. ![]()
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