THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 28, 2022

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

M. KOSTYUK/K. Swan

4-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on today's match?

MARTA KOSTYUK: This is the first time I sit down after the match (smiling).

I can actually reflect on it. It was obviously like extremely close match. Katie was playing great tennis, and I didn't know till the end if I will manage to close out the match.

Grass is not an easy surface. You know, I enjoy playing on it. I love Wimbledon. But it's one of the most challenging ones for me. Maybe it's gonna change in the future, but for now I'm still struggling a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. First of all, if I could, let me just express sorrow and support in terms of the tragedy your country has been undergoing.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Thank you.

Q. The war has been going now since February. War is a terrible thing. Does that ever get easier? Is there ever a sense of any hint of normalcy or is it just mind-boggling still?

MARTA KOSTYUK: You know, our brains, you know, our minds, they get used to things, no matter how good or bad they are. Because, you know, if I lived the last couple months the same way I lived first couple weeks, you know, I probably wouldn't be here now. It's impossible to survive.

I don't know. Like, I'm adapting. I feel like a lot of people have adapted to it. I'm not just talking about like Ukrainians. I'm just talking to people all over the world, because I can see how much lower, like, the impression of the whole thing is going on now. Like, I feel like people are talking about it a lot less than before, which is from one side understandable, but from the other side, it's leading, you know, to worse and worse things. It's not getting better. I don't think it will get better as long as the war is going on.

And regarding like my personal, mental state, I don't know, like I'm working a lot on it, so obviously, you know, it's a roller coaster. Sometimes it gets good. Sometimes I'm feeling better. Then something happens, it goes back to bad again.

But overall, I feel like things have become more stable, you know. I understood where my, like, where my area is, what I need to focus on and what I need to achieve. It's up and down.

Q. At Roland Garros, Billie Jean King said sports is politics, politics is sports, we're an entertainment. Then Wimbledon took its stance and some applauded saying this should be done, this is a war crime. But most in tennis said sports has nothing to do with politics; everyone should be allowed to play. There were very few who countered that view. In your heart, what is your view?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think it's not just in my heart, it's in my mind as well that sport has always been politics. We are not talking about some personal, like, propaganda of targeted people in politics, you know, that we are trying to promote.

For example, you know, it's going to be, like, very political, for example, if someone was trying to promote like a particular person, you know, a politician, or kind of the politics or some party or whatever.

I think this is, like, this is where it gets like extremely political and has nothing to do with the sports. But everyone, like, including me, I have my own fan base, I have my own people who are following me, people for whom I'm an example in a certain way.

It's still small, like probably still small circle of people but it's still there. What I promote in the world, to the world, they listen to it. I think it's extremely important to people's opinions and what people think.

This situation, I don't think it has any political carrot, like any political direction or -- I don't know how to say it. Because there are, like, people dying, and, you know, what's going on is extremely sad and not -- like, I don't understand, you know, why it's going on.

Even if we call this like a political decision and political like talking, then definitely sport has always been politics and always will be. Like, they are one and another. Especially, as I said before, in the countries like Russia, sport has always been one of the most important events, because this is how they are trying to make the country look strong by their sports people, you know, how good they are, what ranking they are in the Olympic medal list and all these things.

So this is definitely, like especially countries like Russia and China, those things are, sport is extremely political. Honestly, I feel it's stupid when someone says sport is out of politics. It's really stupid (smiling).

Q. I guess when the war started, if you woke in the night all you could think about would be to do with the war. Have you moved on, so if you wake in the night do you think who you play in Wimbledon, how far you can go in Wimbledon? Have you moved on in that sense?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I'm a very emotional person, so my thoughts and my focus, it changes on whatever, you know, is going on in my life.

So right now I try to make tennis as my priority and my tournaments and everything I do. Definitely, you know, I'm thinking about who I'm going to be playing.

But I realize that throughout this time what changed the most is I don't look at tennis as something like my life depends on it or it's like so extremely important that there is nothing more important than this. This definitely made me feel like better overall, because I don't take tennis, as I said, as something, like, extremely, like, important.

There are things that I'm trying to get like positive things out of what is happening. Because, you know, no matter how terrible the situation is, I still have to, you know, move on, try to move on somehow. That's what I'm trying to do.

But, I mean, it gets better. I mean, like people just get used to it. I get used to it, unfortunately, but it is how it is (smiling).