THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 5, 2023

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

M. KOSTYUK/M. Sakkari

0-6, 7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can you contrast how you were feeling at the end from your last match in Paris, how are you feeling now?

MARTA KOSTYUK: It's been a long month, I'd say. When the draw came out, I was not the happiest person in the room, obviously (smiling). Because I felt like I play good but always had challenging opponent so wasn't easy to gain the confidence back.

Yeah, I had a lot of expectations from myself as well. Just, you know, happy with the turnaround today.

Q. In Paris the reception you got when you left the court wasn't as good. You had great support today. Talk a little bit about that.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah, well, that was questionable behavior from the fans. I mean, they can do whatever they want, honestly, but I just didn't understand it. I don't think I ever will.

Yeah, obviously the support here is different, even though in the beginning of the match, I'd say that they were supporting Maria more than me, which is understandable, because she's more known than me. You know, she's top-10 player. You know, I was fine with it (smiling).

Very happy with the support at the end of the match. I mean, throughout the match, too.

Q. What were your thoughts after the first set? How did you swing everything?

MARTA KOSTYUK: So after the first break on 5-0, deuce, I couldn't understand what's going on at all (smiling). I couldn't put it together. I was rushing a lot. Yeah, I wanted to win it, and I wanted to do it not in the right way, I'd say.

With the second break, it helped me to calm down even more. I had that extra time to put myself together, in a way.

Yeah, just, I don't know, honestly, I don't know how the match would turn out if there was no rain breaks. Yeah, I'd say I used the opportunities that I had today really, really well, including the rain break.

Yeah, but just tried to play every point, I'd say, especially after second break.

Q. Given the opponent and the circumstances, what does this mean to you?

MARTA KOSTYUK: This one means a lot, because it was my 15th attempt to beat top-10 player. Yeah, that was, I had to do a check on my list. Very happy that that pressure is off my shoulders.

Well, I played Maria two times before and I lost to her with the same score, so I knew she's ready for me. I knew she's pumped for me. So she will fight till the end. You know, I was also ready.

Q. You mentioned about the rain delays. How do you pass the time? Like yesterday, what did you do?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yesterday we found out that I will not play pretty soon, because I believe the forecast was too bad for them to even give us any hope.

I went home, actually, right after lunch, like around 2:00 p.m. I was home, because I live in Wimbledon this year, which is very comfortable. Yeah, by the time I came back home, they announced that my match is canceled, so I just had a nap and I came back on-site and did some gym session and had dinner and went back home.

So it was not the worst day yesterday, even though I woke up like really ready for the match, you know, and pumped and like, you know, how do you say it, yeah, very pumped, I'd say. So I felt like I burnt out a little bit yesterday. It's not just a regular match. I felt the pressure. Wasn't easy to start today.

Q. What else is on that checklist? As you said, you check things off. And you just said the rain delay really helped you today. I'm wondering explicitly, how did it help you today?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Well, I think there are a lot of things on my checklist. I just try to do my best. Hopefully match by match or tournament by tournament that I will make my list smaller and smaller.

Yeah, obviously, I mean, titles, being top-10 player, you know, slams. It's all there. I just try to look at it step by step.

The rain delay, how did it help me? I don't know. I just kind of had a break, because everything started so quick in the match today. So I was, like, I couldn't take a break during the match obviously because everything goes fast, and I was doing a lot of unforced errors throughout the match, so I was, like, I have to stop somehow.

The rain helped. I think I was very emotional, even though -- I mean, I got more emotional on court after the second rain break, but before that, I was very emotional but I was, like, numb in a way. I was so emotional I couldn't do anything about it.

So I had a really good cry both times, that helped, because I was also desperate in a certain way, because I'm playing good but I don't know why is it going so bad, you know.

Yeah, I think that helped because I kind of like released it, and I feel like I accepted, in the second rain break I accepted that I lost the match already. It turned out that it's not the worst thing in the world to happen to me, even though if I would lose today, my world is not going to like be destroyed.

That helped, because I kind of, you know, I let it go and I just tried to play point by point. That helped.

Q. In the past month you have been posting pictures from Ireland and Iceland. Why those two destinations? Did going on holiday help you reset...

MARTA KOSTYUK: Where did I post the pictures from?

Q. Ireland and Iceland.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Iceland? I don't think that was me. No.

Q. You didn't go to Iceland and Ireland?

MARTA KOSTYUK: No. I don't remember, especially in last couple of months probably I didn't.

Q. What did you do recently to reset in the time after Paris?

MARTA KOSTYUK: After Paris? What did I do? Well, I stayed for doubles and mixed there, so it was a little bit tough because I had very long matches for whatever reason, both mixed and doubles. Then when I came back home, yeah, I came back to Monaco and I was just practicing. You know, I was excited to, you know, to work and to go back, because I want to do better always.

Yeah, I just tried to follow my normal practice routine, and then I went to UK, I played Birmingham and I couldn't play Eastbourne. I mean, I won doubles in Birmingham but I didn't play Eastbourne in singles. Also gave me more time to prepare for Wimbledon, which probably, you know, paid off today, I guess.

Q. You said it had been a long month. Is that because of the results you were experiencing on court and the grass or other things, or both?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think I just feel like I had a very intense first couple of months of the year. I had like tournament after tournament and match after match, so I had like no break.

And then, because Madrid and Rome became two-weeks events and Paris is two-week event, I just felt like I haven't spent enough time on court. I have just remembered that I only practiced, in the past two months I only practiced because I couldn't play anything in between and I was getting sick.

Yeah, I just feel like these two-weeks event they don't help really. Especially if you don't have a great week. So yeah, it was long. You know, I have very intense life, in a way. Like different things happen all of the time.

Yeah, I think this is one of the reasons, just a lot of events.

Q. In what ways has your personal life and the life of your country in the last few months affected your perspective on tennis? You mentioned you thought during that break, if I lose, it's not the end of the world, basically. What are these other things doing to affect your perspective?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think the whole situation, the invasion in Ukraine, it helped me to reconsider a lot of things in my life. I look at a lot of things differently.

Of course tennis is my job, and this is where I try to succeed. So sometimes the idea of what tennis is for me outweighs the actual tennis, you know, like the actual thing. So it makes me believe that this is the biggest thing in the world, I have to win it.

Well, what can I say is that all these events and all these things, they help me grow, they help me become stronger. It's just I try to take the most out of bad situation. I'm just sorry for, I feel very bad for all the people who are struggling. You know, they have no choice and they are dying.

But yeah, you know, but I have to say that when I have an issues on court or like when I'm nervous about myself or that I don't like something how I do it, thinking about people in Ukraine don't help me. It doesn't help me. I don't know why. Because I can't live what they live, and it kind of like sometimes it helps me, so I'm very grounded, in a way. Like I'm very here, you know, on earth. I'm not in the sky.

You know, seeing people suffer is obviously difficult. But, yeah, I don't know how to explain it. I don't know if you understand what I'm trying to say, that thinking about the people actually have something worse in their life, it doesn't help me feel better about my problems -- not my problems but my issues that I'm facing at that moment.

So maybe there are people for who it helps, but I just feel like it's really difficult for me to, you know, to look on my situation from outside completely.

Yeah, I try different ways, because obviously these events, they show me that tennis is not my life, you know, that tennis is not what I'm living for. This is the only thing I do.

I was like this before the war. Like it really felt like I was even questioning myself, is there anything else I can do besides tennis? Am I even good at anything else? And the war, invasion, it showed me that there are plenty of things that I'm confident I can do in life if it would not be tennis.

So that part, I'm pretty okay.

Q. Like what?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I don't know. I feel like I got pretty good at organizing things. Hasn't been easy, but I felt like this is what will help me in the future. I realized that I know a lot of things. Like at first I was like, okay, I just play tennis but I don't know anything how the world works, how the business works, all these things. Then it made me realize, I started working with Wilson, we're closely working on making collections and this, and I started to see I'm actually not bad in seeing things like, I mean, the design way, like designing things in a way.

I'm not designing exactly like the dresses, but I make changes of what I think would be better. Yeah, that obviously helps, and that gives me like, like a good feeling, you know, just knowing that tennis is not the only thing I know.