Marta shared her emotions after being eliminated from her debut Olympic Games.
Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyukgave a comment after an extremely grueling quarterfinal match of the 2024 Olympic Games against Croatian Donna Vekic, in which she suffered a defeat and failed to reach the semifinals.
In particular, the 22-year-old Ukrainian spoke about a bright moment before the start of the decisive third set, when she decided to dance on the court to the music playing in the arena.
It is interesting that during the first game, Marta’s emotions were the opposite: the game was not going well and tears began to appear on her face.
“Let's be honest: we are playing a tennis match and suddenly, when the score is 3:2, the whole stadium starts screaming. I look at the judge, ask what happened, he says that we won gold. I don't know what it was. And then I was sitting on the crossing when I won the second set, looking at all these people, I realized that I am in the middle of a celebration of the whole world, in this sporting unity. That this is really a celebration, once every four years, it happens quite rarely. And I am proud to be part of this celebration, that I can represent my country. And then there was cheerful music – I understand that I only live once and lived through this moment,” Marta said in a commentary for Suspilne Sport.
Kostyuk also shared her emotions from being eliminated from the Olympics in Paris, which was the debut in her career.
“It hurt a little after the match, but I can't change anything. Ideally, you should treat defeats the same way you treat victories. This defeat taught me a lot. I was not in the best shape, I couldn't serve for various reasons. And the fact that I was able to hold on until such a score and until such a match – I can only be proud of myself. Because no one knows what condition I was in, what hurt or not. This is sport, unfortunately, the Olympics are held every four years. I really want to play in the next Olympics, I hope to win a medal there, but not this year.
What changed in the second set? I don't know. I have some guesses, because I was playing in incredible heat, I needed to tighten my racket. In the quarterfinals we played in the evening, and all my rackets were strung very hard, although I asked for softer ones. When I went out on the court, I couldn't feel the ball, because the strings were so hard. During the match, I gave my rackets to be re-strung, they didn't give them back to me as quickly as I thought. In the first set I did everything I could, in the second set I looked for my game as best I could and turned it around.
How were the defeats to Vekic at Roland Garros 2024 and at the Olympics different? They were completely different, I was in different mental states. At Roland Garros I was very tired from a very busy start to the season. I tried to pick myself up piece by piece, but I wasn’t very successful. I started the match in about the same way as two months ago, but the most important thing is that I was able to pull myself together and not give up, as I did at Roland Garros. We had a rain break and I said I don’t know how I’m going to win this match, I don’t believe it. And then I lost, I lost in the second set and still did everything to get back into the game,” the Ukrainian Suspilne Sport quotes.
Kostyuk lost to Vekic in a three-hour confrontation with a score of 4:6, 6:2 , 6:7. During the match, Marta played off four match points and had her own match point in the third set tiebreak, but did not convert it.
Kostyuk is the only Ukrainian tennis player who reached the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games singles. -2024. At the start of the competition, she defeated New Zealander Lulu Sun, in the second round she beat Frenchwoman Clara Burel, and in the 1/8 finals she won a strong-willed victory. over the eighth racket of the world Maria Sakkari from Greece.
Earlier, Elina Svitolina and Dayana Yastremskaya dropped out of the singles competition of the 2024 Olympics, and Angelina Kalinina withdrew before the start due to illness. p>
But in the doubles tennis category, Ukraine continues to be represented at the Games in Paris: sisters Lyudmila and Nadezhda Kichenok reached the quarterfinals, where on August 1 they will compete against Spaniards Kristina Buksha and Sara Sorribes-Tormo.