Australian Open 2018: 15-year-old Marta Kostyuk through to third round
Kostyuk's win streak at Melbourne Park is now 11 straight matches after claiming the Australian Open girls' title in 2017 and coming through qualifying this year
Wednesday 17 January 2018 11:04, UK
Teenage sensation Marta Kostyuk defeated Olivia Rogowska 6-3 7-5 to become the youngest player in more than 20 years to reach the third round of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open.
The 15-year-old, who is ranked 521 in the world, was given a wild card into qualifying after winning the junior title last year, and this is her first main draw at any WTA-level tournament.
Kostyuk won three matches to earn a spot in the main draw, then upset Chinese veteran Peng Shuai in the first round.
Perhaps an even tougher challenge, she followed that up with a convincing win over Australian wild-card entry Rogowska in front of a partisan crowd at Margaret Court Arena on Wednesday.
With her run in Melbourne, Kostyuk has now become the youngest player to reach the third round since Martina Hingis made the quarter-finals at the age of 15 in 1996.
"I heard a lot of times that I'm talented, and I know that," said the confident teen who is represented by Roger Federer's coach and former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic. "But I know that only talent will not help me to play good. So I'm working pretty hard."
Kostyuk gave up acrobatics to focus on tennis at age 11 and is now causing quite a stir back home.
She said: "I took my phone, and I had to eat at the same time. My mum told me to leave the phone and eat properly. Because I didn't have a normal breakfast, that's why I felt quite bad today on court. I didn't still reply to a lot of people."
In the third round, Kostyuk will play her fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who went into the tournament as the joint title favourite but struggled in a 4-6 6-2 6-1 victory over Katerina Siniakova.
Speaking about Kostyuk, the fourth seed said: "The first time I heard about her was when she won here. It's good, it's pretty cool that I'm playing someone from my country. It's going to be very exciting for me and hopefully I can be ready for that match."
