Kostyuk one win from history after reaching first Wimbledon semifinal

Up until early June, Marta Kostyuk had never reached a Grand Slam semifinal. Six weeks later, the No. 12 seed has done it twice and now stands on the brink of creating history for Ukrainian tennis.

On Wednesday, Kostyuk advanced to her first Wimbledon semifinal and her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal after defeating Italy's Jasmine Paolini in straight sets on Centre Court. The result matched the best Wimbledon performance by a Ukrainian player, equaling Elina Svitolina, who has reached the semifinals twice.

Using her powerful groundstrokes and exceptional athleticism to devastating effect, Kostyuk earned the first break of the match in the fifth game of the opening set and never looked back. She broke again in the ninth game to wrap up the set 6-3.

The second set followed a similar pattern, as breaks in the fourth and eighth games carried Kostyuk to a 6-3, 6-2 victory in just 69 minutes in her Centre Court debut.

Kostyuk was dominant on serve, not facing a single break point throughout the contest. She was pushed to deuce just once across her eight service games while converting four of her eight break-point opportunities on Paolini's serve.

"For sure it was a very good match," Kostyuk told the media after her win. "Happy with the performance. I think I did well tactically. It's never easy to go out for the first time on Centre Court. I didn't know how I'm going to handle this and how I'm going to perform. So happy with everything."

21st win in last 22 matches on the tour for Kostyuk

Paolini, runner-up here in 2024, struggled to find her rhythm, finishing with 26 unforced errors and eight winners, while Kostyuk produced a far more balanced performance, striking 19 winners while committing 19 unforced errors.

The victory was Kostyuk's 21st in her past 22 matches on tour with 10 of those coming at the Majors. "I think I worked on a lot of things for a long period of time," she said about her recent success. "I cannot point out something that was like one thing. I feel like tennis is very complex sport, so you cannot separate something that you change and that's it. I feel like just being more consistent from day to day is definitely bringing the results. Just overall consistency in how I feel and how I am."

Kostyuk stands on the brink of history

The 24-year-old will be bidding to become the first Ukrainian player in history to reach the Wimbledon women's singles final.

"I'm hoping it would mean a lot," Kostyuk said when asking about the possibility. "It was really tough for me last week when the first big attack happened. Then on Monday they ruined like four streets of residential buildings. It was like five kilometers away from where my parents live. It's not easy. I tried to be aware of everything that's going on. Of course, I try for these things not to influence me too much. Every day is different. I cope with it as it goes."

She will next face No. 9 seed Linda Noskova for a place in her first Grand Slam final. Kostyuk leads their head-to-head 1-0 after a straight-set victory in the Madrid Open quarterfinals in May.