Kostyuk Stumbles, Falls to Jacquemot in Historic First-Rounder at Australian Open

20th-seeded Marta Kostyuk had her chances on Sunday during her three hour and 31-minute clash with Frenchwoman Elsa Jacquemot.

In the end she couldn’t close out the victory and ended up falling 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 7-6(10-7) in the first recorded women’s match to feature three tiebreak sets in the Open Era.

Kostyuk served for the match against the former junior No.1 in the second set, but was broken to love. The Ukrainian then had a match point with Jacquemot serving at 5-6, 30-40 later in the set, but couldn’t convert. She must have felt truly cursed when she twisted her ankle while serving at 6-5 in the final set, after failing to convert five break points across her previous two return games.

Kostyuk appeared to be injured badly, but got a tape job and came out to save a match point to force a match tiebreak. She then ralled from 5-2 and 7-4 down to level at 7-7 beore losing the final three points of the marathon match.

Jacquemot gets her first ever Top-20 win against the former quarterfinalist. It’s a tough way to go out for Kostyuk, who had reeled off three consecutive Top-10 wins to reach the Brisbane final just over a week ago.

As for Kostyuk, it was later revealed that she tore ligaments in her ankle – she has since pulled out of her spot in the doubles draw. More proof of her courageous effort, albeit in a difficult loss.