– Marta, it is obvious that today’s result is not the one you would like, but if you look at the whole week as a whole, you showed amazing results. How are you feeling and how will this help you start the season?
– It was a great week for me. Three victories over tennis players from the top 10. I couldn’t have wished for more. And considering the fact that I only had one win against opponents from the top ten all last year, this is a great start to the season for me. It was bound to happen sometime. I know I just have to keep working, I’m really happy with this week.
– Congratulations on a wonderful week. Impressive game in the final too. There were some phenomenal plays in this match, powerful shots from the back line, lots of great drop shots, your footwork. How much did you take from today, when you were able to impose a struggle on the first racket of the world?
– We had very close matches in Madrid and Rome, especially in Madrid. I think the conditions in Brisbane were very different to those in Spain and Italy. For example, the court here was very fast. Arina did well, hitting all my deep balls and just keeping up the pace.
I couldn’t do much. I tried different ways, but obviously I didn’t play my best tennis either. I was not 100% physically ready. I thought I could cover the court better (smiles) because it’s the final. I had very difficult matches against great players. I’m not injured or anything like that. It’s just that the body also gets tired.
And when you play against the number one racket in the world, you need to be… Better, you need to be 100% ready, because that gives you more chances.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this week. I have made great progress on and off the court, and I believe that tennis is not a sprint, but a marathon. We have four Grand Slam tournaments a year. That’s a lot of possibilities. Every week there is an opportunity. I’m happy with how I executed my opportunities this week and I think that’s something I’ll definitely take with me going forward.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine – When you play with someone like Arina, it seems like she never loses momentum. As you said, tennis is a bit like a marathon, but it felt like you were sprinting for an hour and a half.
– Yes. I wish there was more variety in the finale, but like I said, the game was really, really fast. So I had to go another way. It didn’t work.
I think it ended up being a great match. I am very glad that I was able to stay in the match as long as I could. I was back in the game. It wasn’t easy because it seemed like I was hitting a wall every time, that I was trying different things and nothing was working. I kept trying. I never gave up.
I gave myself the best chance. It didn’t work, but I think that’s the most important thing in the end, because last year I almost always gave up in matches against these players, and this week I didn’t, which is a very big win for me. I think it gives me a lot of opportunities in the future as well.
– This week you have three wins against top 10 players. If you keep playing like this, do you think you deserve a top 10 spot and can get there this year? Speaking of the upcoming tournament in Melbourne, how far do you think you can go if you play like you did this week?
– I think that if I continue to beat players from the top 10, then, of course, there can be no other options. I mean, I’m going to be a top 10 player because then I’m just going to advance far in tournaments. I think so. That’s certainly my goal, and this week has shown that I’m not too far from it. I just have to keep working. So, yes, that’s exactly how it is.
Australian Open? I have time to recover. I don’t play in Adelaide. I will recover a bit, rest a bit and get back to work. In general, I feel quite refreshed mentally and physically in three days.
I have a great team that helps me recover and stay happy. I think this is also very important. I’m going to Melbourne and I’m very happy to see my Ukrainian family again, to enjoy Ukrainian food, to see my friend Evalys, whose birthday it is.
A few good days ahead and I feel good. There’s a new tournament in a week, so we’re all starting over. Let’s see how far I can go.
– You spoke about Ukraine during the awards ceremony on the court. I believe that there are many conflicts in the world now, there are many other things that take priority. Do you think it’s really important to just highlight what’s going on in your home so people don’t forget about it?
– I think it is important for me to use my platform correctly, and my platform is Ukraine, because I represent Ukraine, so I think it is very important to talk about it.
I think I have a certain popularity, many people follow me, many people look at me, children and adults. When the war started, I realized that it is very important to stand up for what you believe in and talk about it, whether it is about the war or about other beliefs. If that’s what you believe, you should talk about it.
No matter what it is, if you believe in something, you have to talk about it. I think it’s really important for me personally, because like I said on the court, my house, like the house where my parents live, they have heating, they have generators, so even if there’s a blackout, they can still use electricity to heat their house, but it’s still very cold inside. My husband’s parents wear jackets around the house because it is very cold.
You see, I’m here, I’m doing my job, of course, that’s the most important thing, but at the same time, the reality at home is completely different. I just feel like I can’t ignore it and have to share it. I have a platform to do it and I have a voice. In my position, it is impossible not to talk about it. It would just be inhumane for me.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine – It seems that in the first set you were particularly aggressive on the first serve. Some shots were game-winners, but some were way off the court. Do you think that’s a risk worth taking against an opponent like Arina, or will you play more defensively and look for shots more carefully next time?
– I would say that Arina was very strong. Some of her serves were simply stunning, with a speed of 175 kilometers per hour. If you’re a tennis player, if you know tennis, you understand that it’s an incredibly fast wide serve, and it’s not that it didn’t hit the body. It was a really wide pitch.
So, you know, she was serving really well and my choppy forehand wasn’t working that well and I felt like she was getting the upper hand very quickly, so I didn’t want to give her that opportunity. I tried different things, but unfortunately those slices didn’t work today either, I missed a lot.
I wasn’t that fast, I would say. Yes that it’s like a combination of different things. I tried different things and, you know, at that moment, on the court, it seemed to me that it was the right decision. It was pretty much the only thing I could do. I missed a lot of balls, took a little more risk than usual, because the pressure she creates on the court, if you play a little shorter, it almost immediately leads to an instant win.
I was not in a winning position. So it was difficult. But yes, I tried different things. So, you know, some things worked and some things didn’t. Overall, I like the aggressive print. She hit the balls very, very well. Even when they flew into the court, the speed was incredible. I’m really curious, at some points I want to know what the speed of the ball was, because it felt like we were hitting 150 kilometers per hour, which was just crazy.
I think when I played her on clay, it was a little bit different type of game, so her ball didn’t accelerate as fast as it does here. Here it was really difficult to build something in the draw, because the ball was just sliding around the court like crazy.
Every week we have different conditions, different balls, different weather, different courts. So next time I’ll try something different for sure (smiles).
– Marta, a wonderful week. Well done. There was a situation when you missed a lot, and Arina was also surprised. The expression on your face was like this: “What happened?”. She was perhaps more surprised that the ball went out of bounds and you both laughed it off. How do you rate this moment?
– It was a crazy blow. I don’t know how he got on the court, it was really crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever hit a shot like that in my life. One time I missed a serve, the tip of the racket touched it, and it was an ace because the ball landed very short. This happened to me in Madrid last year. But I have never played with such a shot.
So it was funny and, you know, it was just a really random winning point. It was funny how she stopped and then reacted, but in any case, the ball cut down the court very quickly. Yes, it was funny.
Video review of the match Marta Kostyuk – Arina Sobolenko (WTA 500 Final in Brisbane)
Source: sport.ua