Until this Saturday, Marta Kostyuk had not even reached a final of a WTA 1000, the second category of tournaments after the Grand Slams. In her debut at this level, the Ukrainian tennis player defeated the Russian Mirra Andreeva (6-3 and 7-5, 1h 21m), Conchita’s protégé, this afternoon at the Caja Mágica. The 23-year-old player from Kiev collapsed on the clay of the Manolo Santana and broke down in tears of emotion. Then she got up, greeted the chair umpire, and avoided shaking hands with her opponent, a tennis player born in Russia who has not explicitly rejected the invasion by the Moscow Army that has ravaged her country for more than four years. It was the first time since the war started by Vladimir Putin in February 2022 that a Ukrainian and a Russian faced each other in a WTA 1000 final. The victory rounds off three fantastic weeks for Sandra Zaniewska’s protégé, who has accumulated 11 wins in as many clay court matches. Thirteen days ago she was crowned in Rouen — a WTA 250 — where she captured the second title of her career, and now she does so at the Madrid Masters. She celebrates in the middle of the court with a backward somersault, a display of the power and strength in the legs of an athlete who, as a child, was part of the Ukrainian national gymnastics team.
Today is not a pleasant afternoon in the San Fermín neighborhood, but the tournament organizers barely have time before 5:00 p.m. to open the roof of the Manolo Santana so that the final between Kostyuk and Andreeva, who turned 19 last Wednesday, can be played outdoors. It is no longer raining in southern Madrid, but the sky remains overcast and gusts of wind occasionally bother the players. They especially discomfort the Russian, who struggles with her serve — only 55% of her serves are first serves — and sees her opponent break her serve four times in as many attempts — a break in the first set and three in the second.
Kostyuk imposes her rhythm from the start and commands with her forehand, a whip that takes a toll on her opponent. The first service game is flawless: she takes it without a single error and with four winners. It is a warning of what is to come. “Here I am,” she seems to say, even though she had not arrived at the final as the favorite, but as the novice. But today she rules, superior to Andreeva, a tennis player from whom the racket world expects wonders after she was crowned last season, when she was only 17, in Dubai and Indian Wells, the youngest in history to reach her third WTA 1000 final this afternoon.
The Russian’s game has all the shots, but today she is unable to stop Kostyuk, who resists the rebellion attempt by the player coached by Conchita in the second set, when she goes up 3-1. The counterbreak comes to seal 3-3, then she saves two set points with her serve and finishes the match on the return. She rises eight positions in the world ranking with the victory, a bite that on Monday will take her from 23rd to 15th — the best ranking of her career — while Andreeva will move up from eighth to seventh.
No one expected the Ukrainian player, who had not passed the third round this year either in Indian Wells or Miami and who had fallen in the first round at the Australian Open. In January she lost to the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, in the Brisbane final — a WTA 500 — but since then she had deflated until the European clay season arrived. The wins in Rouen and Madrid project her as one of the candidates at the Foro Italico in the next two weeks and later — from May 24 to June 7 — also at Roland Garros. “I usually don’t play well in Paris, so I will go back to basics and to what made me win here this week. I want to enjoy and be open to the opportunities to suffer and the different challenges that come my way. Roland Garros is still very far away, I just hope to be healthy, that’s the only thing that matters to me,” says Sabalenka’s successor at the Masters.
The Ukrainian participated for the first time at the Caja Mágica in 2018 and only won one match in her first five appearances. She struggled to get used to the tournament due to the altitude of the city — about 650 meters above sea level — which causes the ball to fly off and makes it more difficult to control the shots. Last year she reached the quarterfinals, and this year she knocked out Putintseva (80th), Pegula (5th), McNally (76th), Noskova (13th), and Potapova (56th) before lifting the trophy today in a ceremony without a joint photo with Andreeva due to the geopolitical situation and the protest she shares with the rest of the Ukrainian tennis players. “Winning in Madrid is incredible. I always had a very bad record here until last year. It’s very exciting,” celebrates the new Masters champion, who heads to Rome with a new status after winning her first WTA 1000.
