Kostyuk beats Svitolina to make Roland Garros semifinals in historic Ukrainian showdown

From the moment the Open Era's first all-Ukrainian Grand Slam quarterfinal was set at Roland Garros, it carried a historic weight -- and the match delivered.

No. 15 seed Marta Kostyuk booked her place in her first major semifinal by defeating No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in 1 hour and 49 minutes, surging to the finishing line by winning 13 of the last 14 points. Kostyuk has now won 17 straight matches. 

Kostyuk, 23, becomes the first Ukrainian woman to reach the last four at Roland Garros in the Open Era, and the third Grand Slam semifinalist from her country following Svitolina and Dayana Yastremska. Svitolina, who has made the semifinals at each of the other majors, falls to 0-6 in Roland Garros quarterfinals.

The moment was made all the more poignant given a devastating Russian attack across Ukraine the previous night, killing at least 18 people. Kostyuk began her on-court interview by dedicating the match to her country.

"I want to start with this historic match that we played today with Elina," she said. "We had a very difficult night again in Ukraine, especially in Kyiv. So many people dead. I want to give this match to Ukrainian people and to their resilience."

Though Svitolina, the most accomplished Ukrainian player in WTA history, came into the match with a 10-2 record against her countrywomen at tour level, Kostyuk has now improved to 2-1 in their personal head-to-head. She lost to Svitolina as a 15-year-old playing the first Grand Slam of her career at the 2018 Australian Open, but her win on Tuesday in Paris almost exactly reprised the scoreline of their 2024 Toronto second-round meeting, won by Kostyuk 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

Afterward, Kostyuk also paid tribute to her trailblazing countrywoman.

"And of course, I want to point out Elina and her incredible impact on Ukrainian tennis, on Ukrainians and on me," she said. "Everyone who's watching, she's an unbelievable fighter. I'm so happy to be in the semifinals, but I want to thank her again for this incredible match."

The Roland Garros contest pitted two double-digit clay-court winning streaks against each other. Rouen and Madrid champion Kostyuk has now won 17 matches in a row, snapping Rome champion Svitolina's run at 10 straight. She'll face No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva in the semifinals in a rematch of the Madrid final, with a first Grand Slam final at stake for both players. Kostyuk leads the head-to-head 2-0, with straight-sets victories in both the Brisbane quarterfinals and Madrid final this year.

Kostyuk's 17-match streak is the longest at tour level since Iga Swiatek's 21 in a row between April and July 2024. She is the fifth player this century to win her first 17 clay-court matches of the season, following Venus Williams (2004), Justine Henin (2005), Serena Williams (2012, 2013) and Swiatek (2022).

Only four active players have compiled longer winning streaks than Kostyuk's current one: Swiatek, the Williams sisters and Victoria Azarenka.

After tactical twists, Kostyuk turns up the heat for victory

At the start of the third set, Kostyuk was in need of a tactical reset. After a hot start to the match, she'd been pushed back by the controlled aggression with which Svitolina had responded. From 3-0 down in the first set, Svitolina had begun to construct points with real sophistication. an injection of pace on her forehand down the line was followed by a drive volley, then a deftly spun drop volley that ricocheted out of Kostyuk's reach. She brought Kostyuk to net, then lofted a volleyed lob over her head.

It wasn't enough to take the first set, but a similar strategy took Svitolina -- who already had two comebacks from a set down under her belt this fortnight -- through the second. The decider opened with four consecutive service breaks as Kostyuk attempted to find the answer.

"I missed one point in the beginning of the third set and I looked at [coach] Sandra [Zaniewska] and she was really, really pissed," Kostyuk recalled. "I don't see her like this often."

Zaniewska's expression was a reminder of how Kostyuk had backed away from the game plan, and what she needed to do to lock back into it.

"I think I wasn't aggressive enough, then I found the rhythm, then I was struggling a little bit," she said. "I'm very glad that I committed to it. I was thinking, how do I want to play if I want to win the tournament here? And this was the answer, and it worked."

If anything, that's an under-statement. Kostyuk won 13 of the last 14 points of the match, and nine of those were clean winners. The first was a remarkable forehand volley to break for 3-2 -- after a scrambling, all-court exchange, Svitolina's passing shot clipped the net cord, but Kostyuk's reflexes were still enough to deal with the ball's altered flight path.

From that point on, she was untouchable. The last three games took just nine minutes as the match transformed from a contest with nothing between the two into the Kostyuk show: a blur of smashes, aces and backhand winners.

In her press conference, Kostyuk clarified what she'd taken from Zaniewska's look.

"I don't think she was really pissed, but she was really intense," she said. "She showed me what I had to do, which was I had to hit the ball that I didn't hit. I kind of tried to lift it, and I missed it. It was in the beginning of the third set. I was 2-1 up, and it was the first point of the game. Then I realized what I need to do. I lost that game, but I knew that I'm doing the right thing, and then I was just very convinced of what I need to do.

"It helped, but you know, I don't think Sandra is often like this, but it was a very clear sign on what I had to do, and I listened to it."