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After her narrow defeat against Coco Gauff, Marta Kostyuk makes a plea against forgetting.
Legend:
That wouldn’t have happened in the previous two rounds
Marta Kostyuk (right) lets Coco Gauff hug her at the net after the quarterfinals.
Keystone/MAST IRHAM
The contrast could hardly be greater. After an epic battle that lasted over three hours in sweltering heat, Marta Kostyuk warmly hugged US Open winner Coco Gauff. In the previous two rounds, after victories against the Russians Jelina Awanesyan and Maria Timofejewa, the Ukrainian even refused to shake her opponents’ hands – as has been the case for almost two years now.
I still can’t understand what all these players are doing here.
“I had a long break at the end of last season,” explains the 21-year-old from Kiev, who reached a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time ever. “When I returned to the tour after three months, no one talked about the war anymore,” she says angrily. “As if nothing had ever happened.” Like other Ukrainians, she sees it as her mission to remind people of the war against Russia. And that’s why she willingly uses her press conferences to make her opinion clear.
What are they doing here?
For example, tennis is one of the relatively few sports in which Russians and Belarusians are allowed to participate without restrictions, albeit under a neutral flag. “I still can’t understand what all these players are doing here,” she makes her position crystal clear.
«Before I go to the square, I read the news and most likely there is something about rocket strikes. When I leave the field, there are so many rockets standing there.” But the people at home would enjoy the success. “They write to me that they switch back and forth between the rocket hits and the tennis.”
Kostyuk also thinks about her younger sister, a talented high jumper, she says. “It is the generation that is growing up now that is suffering the most. “It will still be like this in ten or fifteen years,” she fears.
Almost broke from the pressure
The last hope for good news is Dajana Jastremska, who was only the second qualifier in the last 30 years to reach the quarterfinals. The last Ukrainian remaining in the table will face the Czech Linda Noskova early on Wednesday morning. Jastremska also explains her fall in the rankings with the pressure she put on herself. «The war affected us all massively. “I wasn’t just playing for myself anymore,” remembers the 23-year-old from Odessa. «There was the war and I simply had to deliver better results. I couldn’t handle that.”
Azarenka: “Next question”
The Russian and Belarusian players prefer to remain silent on the issue, which is also sensitive for them. “Next question,” said Victoria Azarenka (BLR) succinctly after her round of 16 defeat against Jastremska.
For Ukrainians, hiding is not that easy. But as Kostyuk says: “Nobody would have thought that after two years we would still be fighting. Everyone thought we would just die and perish. It’s very exhausting to live in this condition, but we’re still here.”