PARIS: Shortly after Marta Kostyuk entered her post-match press conference at Roland Garros, she displayed a photograph on her phone showing a burning high-rise building. The apartment block had been struck by a powerful Russian missile and stood less than 100 meters from her parents' home in Kyiv. Her mother, sister, and an elderly relative were inside at the time.
Kostyuk received the image at 8 am, approximately three hours before her French Open first-round match on Sunday. The 23-year-old broke down in tears but still laced up her shoes and walked onto the court. As the 15th seed at Roland Garros, she defeated Russian opponent Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-2, 6-3 in 78 minutes.
Later, Kostyuk acknowledged that the scheduling may have worked in her favor. Not only did she avoid the worst of the 31-degree heat by playing early, but she also had little time to sit alone with her thoughts. 'I didn't know what to expect from myself. I didn't know how my focus was going to be, how I'm going to be able to control my emotions or my thoughts,' she said. 'There were obviously times in the match when I would go back to thinking about it, because most of the morning I felt sick. If it was 100 meters closer, I probably wouldn't have my mom and sister.'
'I'm also very happy that I played the first match, because I don't know what would be the outcome if I played last, for example,' she added. 'But I'm very proud of myself today, of how we all handled it, and, you know, happy to be in the second round and that everyone is alive.'
For Kostyuk, who struck 20 winners during the match, this was the closest the war had come to her family. However, withdrawing from the match never crossed her mind. 'I knew that this is the day to go out and play,' she said. 'My biggest example is Ukrainian people. I woke up in the morning today and I looked at all these people who woke up and kept living their lives, kept helping people who are in need.'
Kostyuk has endured even tougher moments over the last four years. 'The beginning of the war was probably the most difficult because of the unknown, we didn't know what was going on,' she said of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 'My whole family was there, we had 17 people in the house. It was just the unknown then. Right now it was the closest that it has ever been to my house, so this is what probably makes it the most emotional.'
While Ukrainian players initially received widespread support after the outbreak of war, Wimbledon barred Russian and Belarusian players from the 2022 Championships. The ban was lifted a year later, with players from both nations allowed to return under neutral status and certain conditions. 'I have also adapted to the fact that the tour forgot about it,' she said of the WTA Tour. 'I'm still trying to do things that I can do and also use my platform, I use my speeches whenever I have a moment to remind people about it.'
'People adapt, people forget, people move on,' she added. 'There are a lot of issues in the world, a lot of wars, and things that people want to support or people are thinking about, and it obviously makes sense. People move on.'
The 23-year-old Kostyuk is scheduled to face American Katie Volynets in the second round on Wednesday.
In other matches on Sunday, second seed Alexander Zverev defeated Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Among the women, American Hailey Baptiste rallied to beat 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-7 (7), 7-6 (6), 6-2 in just under three hours. Eighth seed Mirra Andreeva stopped Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-3.
