By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday April 24, 2021

Still just 18, and closing in on another career-high ranking, Marta Kostyuk has been reminding tennis fans of why she was considered such a promising prospect several years ago, when she reached the third round of the Australian Open as a 15-year-old, where she became the youngest to reach that far at a major in 21 years.




This year Kostyuk has been navigating a tricky season and displaying great form as she does. She reached her first WTA semifinal at Abu Dhabi, and then, after some injuries and a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, she is back in Istanbul, on a different surface, and just reached another semifinal.

Tennis Now talked to the rising start about her game, her difficulties with Covid, her relationship with her coach and mother, Talina Beiko, as well as her best friend on tour, Paula Badosa and her world-class fitness trainer, Christos Fiotakis.

On struggling, and battling past, Covid:

"I think everyone is very unique, in the sense of recovery. So I got it in the beginning of March, so it's been like one and a half months since then, and one month since I'm healthy, Covid-free. I don't know, it's been like a really long process, with ups and downs and sometimes, like, I could see that I was improving because I started to practice very hard right away, because I needed to... some can stay it was a mistake, some can say it's a good thing to do, but because I was playing Miami in like three days after I was feeling at least okay, outside of the court.

I played the match and then I was just practicing and practicing and it was challenging because I mean I could see that I was improving every day, massively, like crazy improvement, but it was still very challenging and sometimes I was like ‘I just want to give up, I cannot push myself any more,’ because it was always on the edge, like always, I had to constantly push myself to do anything. I'm not saying that I didn't want to do it, it was just physically so tough, that I just had to be very in the zone, all the time, it wasn't coming naturally, so I don't know, it was definitely an experience, I don't think I want to experience that again, but I mean I'm really improving and I'm feeling better and better so I think this is one of the most important things."

On her advantages on court against the competition:

"I can honestly say that I improved a lot of aspects in my game, and I can see especially on clay, I can see my advantage over other girls, but sometimes it doesn't work the way I want, like for example today against Ana (Konjuh in the quarterfinal at Istanbul), she's a big hitter, the speed and the heaviness of the ball is the main thing so for me it is really tough to use my advantage, the things I have in my head. Obviously I believe that I'm good at pretty much everything, I'm really good at offense, I'm really good at defense, I have good returns, good serve, it's not, I don't think that there is something that I am very dominant with, that's like, ‘this is my card,’ but I also think that I'm really good at having backup plans, I know that if this is not working, I have another ten ways that I can play, so I think this is something I think I have here, and I just hope to bring it with me, as long as I can."

On her fitness coach Christos Fiotakis

“Christos is really amazing, I mean we started working together a little bit more than a year ago, just before the pandemic started. What he brings? I think he believes in me. So crazy, probably I don't even believe in myself so much. Well, now it's better, but still he's very positive, whatever is happening, he also has a backup plan, he always has an idea, he's always there, and on top of that, he's an amazing athlete and coach, because he is an Olympian for 100 meter sprint, and I think this is what he has brought to me, is he improved my explosiveness even more and he also, I don't know, he just, like I never really question the work he does, I just do what he tells basically, and I don't know like scientifically, what exactly we are working on, what we are improving, so it's a little bit of everything, and also very important is the routine, it's not about doing the same thing, it's about whatever is happening, you are still working. I probably barely had a day or days off. I workout every day. I have days off, but I am always working, so this is very important."

On spending time with Elina Svitolina at Fed Cup:

"I think throughout the years Elina became more open, especially in the team, because I remember her a couple of years ago, I remember her last year and I remember her this year. She's obviously different inside the team. I don't think she really needs to say something to us, or to answer the questions, you just surround yourself with her and it's pretty much enough and you just look what she does and you see. You listen to what she says. I think one of her strengths is that she's very positive, no matter what's happening. You can rarely see her negative on court. She can be nervous, but she's not negative. This is her strength, like a big strength. And this is what I learned big-time last week, because she was playing against a much lower-ranked player than her and she played 7-6 in the third and she said "No, it's still a win, and it doesn't matter." I for example would probably beat myself up saying ‘How can I play with this score?’”

On reaching her second semi-final of 2021, and her travails:

"Second semifinal, you know like, maybe some people look at me and say 'Oh my gosh she is having an incredible year,' and I look at myself and I don't see it, because I see the other side of the story, because I played semifinals in Abu Dhabi and then I got injured, and then I got stuck in the room and I couldn't perform well in Australia because my shoulder didn't heal, and I had to pull back to treat it, then I got Covid, so I skipped a lot of tournaments. I skipped Australia swing, let's say because I only played a Slam and one tournament, I skipped Doha, Dubai, I skipped Mexico. I skipped Charleston as well. I was always questioning myself."

On her best friend Paula Badosa, and her relationship with Bianca Andreescu:

"Paula is my best friend and we always have amazing fun when we are together. I trust her with many things and it's something we don't really have around, especially on tour, so we are very similar, like inside, and we always have a lot of fun together." "Bianca, we celebrated New Years together and we practiced together a couple of times. She's also very nice. She's my friend obviously, but she's different because she's at the top and it's just different with Paula and with Bianca because Bianca is not as much around, as Paula so I don't get to see her as much. But we are always texting and we're always there, so it's just different and I think with the time, and Bianca also skipped a lot of tournaments, so there was a time when I saw Bianca at Roland-Garros juniors in 2017 and next time I saw here was in Monaco in October of 2020, so I didn't see her for more than two years. I was playing and she was playing so we were never really like, we never saw each other. It's different and I think we just need a little more time seeing each other to build a friendship."

On her plans for the clay season:

"Yes, I plan to go to Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros, but then I will see if I play Belgrade, Parma or Strasbourg. This is going to depend how I play on the other tournaments and we'll see how my health is managing, coping. If everything is okay I'll try to play as much as I can because I skipped a lot but for now I just will focus on this week and then we'll see."

On her relationship with her mother and coach, Talina Beiko

"She finished university as a mathematics major - not many people know it. She's incredibly smart, and she knows me I know her, we are very similar, we still fight but we are always there for each other, and we've been through some tough periods and it gave us time to grow and time to realize things, so she just knows me very well, and she knows tennis very well. We've been working together since I was like four years old, I think I am just sorry that my mom doesn't have a chance to work with more people, to not just raise me and be with me around, but to show other people in the world that she's amazing with everyone. She knows me, and she knows my game, and she always can say the right thing, she knows when I'm nervous, she knows when I need a push, these are just little things."