THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2022

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

S. ZHANG/M. Kostyuk

7-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I saw that you posted on Twitter about looking for a mixed doubles partner. Wondering if that's how you found Lukasz Kubot?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I have no idea. I got a lot of requests. I got some from singles players, from doubles players, but I was not sure like, because some of the singles players are like, Yeah, but if I'm not going through on singles don't count on me, because mixed starts on Friday, stuff like this.

You know, I got different requests, and then when I came to the point where I'm like, Okay, it's over, I don't get anymore, I started like going around and asking like doubles players, like, Do you guys want to play mixed here? And stuff like this.

Most of them were set. But then I was practicing, and Lukasz, who I'm playing with, he was practicing next to me. He probably overheard me asking about mixed. I don't know. But he was constantly looking, and I saw him, he wanted to ask -- I was not sure what he wanted, and then that day -- or sorry, next day, which was yesterday, he goes, like, someone asked me, that he asked for my number, because he wanted to play mixed.

I was like, Okay, this is a great idea, because his protected ranking is pretty high, so definitely get in. I was like, Why not? Especially like he's Polish, so it's a great combination. That's how I agreed to play.

Q. The Polish I guess in this moment, especially right now?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah.

Q. So it was not a result of the Twitter post, you don't think?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Maybe. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I have no idea.

Q. Was this a method you'd recommend to other people? Coco Gauff did it too.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Like, for example, Coco did it, but I'm not as followed and as, like, her message got reshared like with a lot of bigger, like, with a lot of like big accounts, which obviously helped the situation. She's American, you know, she knows a lot of American, which she ended up playing with American.

So, you know, we are a bit different in this, but I think I should have done it a little bit earlier, because it was already pretty close.

But it's a good one. Honestly, it's good, because we don't have phone numbers and everything like an ability to -- we don't know the ability of other players. So I think it's the easiest way.

Q. The Osaka match at the US Open...

MARTA KOSTYUK: This was long ago.

Q. Where does that rank in your career? Do a lot of people remember it, and does it come up very often when people see you?

MARTA KOSTYUK: No, not that much. I honestly don't know what people come up with when they see me. I don't know what results they come up, because I have some like couple good matches, some good results, good runs at the slams.

So I have no idea. But it was definitely great match. Honestly, to this day, I'm pretty disappointed about the outcome. It was very close. But, you know, it is what it is.