Youngest player
Kostyuk enjoying Aussie Open run at age 15
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Marta Kostyuk was such a perfectionist when she started playing tennis as a child, she'd blow up in anger if she missed even a single ball. It made tennis completely unenjoyable.
"I always want to win, no matter what," the Ukrainian teenager said. "If I was losing, it was a tragedy. It was, like, I don't want to play anymore."
Now, after beating Olivia Rogowska 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday to become the youngest player to reach the Australian Open third round in two decades, Kostyuk is finding peace with the ups and downs of the sport. All at the wise old age of 15.
"Now, I start to enjoy it," she said. "Finally."
Kostyuk's performance in Melbourne is remarkable considering just how far she's come in such a short time. The Australian Open is not only her first Grand Slam, but her first main draw at any WTA-level tournament.
Her ranking? No. 521. Career earnings? Less than $7,000.
Granted a wild card to the qualifying draw after capturing the Australian Open junior title last year, Kostyuk won three matches to earn a spot in the main draw, then upset the No. 25-seeded 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, the No. 2 show court at Melbourne Park.
The stats weren't pretty — 45 unforced errors to just 22 winners — but Kostyuk handled the pressure well.
And misfire she did aplenty. While serving for the match, she clubbed a ball off the frame of her racket that nearly hit a spectator in the crowd. (Kostyuk blamed serving into the sun: "You throw the ball and you hit the sun, actually.")
Since winning the Australian Open girls title last year, she's made the jump to the pro level and is represented by a high-profile manager, former world No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic, who currently coaches Roger Federer. The impact on her game has been immediate.
With her run in Melbourne, Kostyuk has now become the youngest player to reach the third round since Martina Hingis made the quarterfinals at age 15 in 1996. This has already brought her a great deal of attention — the kind that has proved so difficult for other young players in the past.
Kostyuk is only eligible for 10 tournaments as a 15-year-old.