Crying during rain delays, Kostyuk rallies for an emotional win at Wimbledon

Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk had never defeated a top-10 player at a Grand Slam before, so when she dropped the opening set 6-0, she probably figured it wasn’t her day at Wimbledon.

But the gritty Ukrainian found a way to rally back, braving two rain delays as she notched an emotional 0-6, 7-5, 6-2 over No 8-seeded Maria Sakkari to move into the second round of Wimbledon at the All England Club in London on Wednesday afternoon.

“Every time I was going into the rain break I was going through different emotions,” Kostyuk said on court after her victory, which came in one hour and 53 minutes. “I couldn’t put the ball in. I don’t know I just tried to find [my game].”

Kostyuk, who entered the match with an 0-6 lifetime record against the top 10 at the majors, and 0-15 overall reaches the second round at Wimbledon for the third year in a row, but has neve been beyond.

“This one means a lot, because it was my 15th attempt to beat top-10 player,” she said.
“Yeah, that was, I had to do a check on my list. Very happy that that pressure is off my shoulders.”

It was an emotional scene, both during and after the match.

“I was crying, during the delays, and I tried to figure it out,” she said. “It probably helped me that I was down in the score, it kept me together as I tried to come back into the match.”

Kostyuk, like many players, admits that it has been difficult waiting out the rain that has interrupted play in each of the first three days.

“Not easy going through these couple of days,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow but today I’m definitely going to celebrate a little bit.”

Sakkari is the second top-10 seed to fall on the women’s side. No 7-seeded Coco Gauff was defeated by Sofia Kenin on Day 2.

Kostyuk, ranked No 36, will play the winner of the match between American Alison Riske-Amritraj and Spaniard Paula Badosa next.

London (Grand Slam), other first-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 2.000.000, most recent results first):

• Aliaksandra Sasnovich vs. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
• Viktorija Golubic vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Rebecca Marino
• Linda Noskova vs. Dalma Galfi
• Karolina Muchova vs. Jule Niemeier
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Petra Kvitova
• Anna Bondar vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Yanina Wickmayer vs. Anna Blinkova
• Jessica Bouzas Maneiro vs. Anhelina Kalinina
• Sonay Kartal vs. Madison Keys
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Xiyu Wang
• Nao Hibino vs. Alize Cornet
• Bernarda Pera vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Karolina Pliskova vs. Natalija Stevanovic
• Madison Brengle vs. Sara Errani
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Celine Naef
• Alison Riske-Amritraj vs. Paula Badosa
• Carol Zhao vs. Tamara Korpatsch: wednesday
• Heather Watson vs. Barbora Krejcikova: wednesday
• Kaja Juvan (Q) beat Margarita Betova: 6-0, 6-3
• Katie Boulter vs. Daria Saville: wednesday
• Greet Minnen vs. Jelena Ostapenko: wednesday
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Camila Giorgi: wednesday
• Zhuoxuan Bai (Q) beat Ysaline Bonaventure: 7-6, 6-1
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (21) beat Emma Navarro: 6-4, 6-3
• Sorana Cirstea beat Tatjana Maria: 6-1, 2-6, 6-3
• Jaqueline Cristian beat Lucia Bronzetti: 6-3, 6-4
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (13) beat Yulia Putintseva: 3-6, 6-0, 6-4
• Anett Kontaveit beat Lucrezia Stefanini (Q): 6-4, 6-4
• Donna Vekic (20) beat Shuai Zhang: 6-2, 6-3
• Sloane Stephens beat Rebecca Peterson: 6-2, 6-3
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Camila Osorio: 6-3, 6-4
• Danielle Collins beat Julia Grabher: 6-4, 6-4
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Panna Udvardy: 6-3, 6-1
• Ons Jabeur (6) beat Magdalena Frech: 6-3, 6-3
• Elena Rybakina (3) beat Shelby Rogers: 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
• Marie Bouzkova (32) beat Simona Waltert (Q): 6-1, 6-4
• Sofia Kenin (Q) beat Coco Gauff (7): 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
• Katerina Siniakova beat Qinwen Zheng (24): 6-3, 7-5
• Rebeka Masarova beat Mayar Sherif (31): 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (6)
• Elise Mertens (28) beat Viktoria Hruncakova (Q): 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Elina Svitolina (WC) beat Venus Williams (WC): 6-4, 6-3
• Belinda Bencic (14) beat Katie Swan (WC): 7-5, 6-2
• Daria Kasatkina (11) beat Caroline Dolehide: 6-1, 6-4
• Xinyu Wang beat Storm Hunter (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Jodie Burrage (WC) beat Catherine McNally: 6-1, 6-3
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Peyton Stearns: 6-2, 7-5
• Sara Sorribes Tormo beat Martina Trevisan: 6-3, 6-1
• Magda Linette (23) beat Jil Teichmann: 6-3, 6-2
• Leylah Fernandez beat Kateryna Baindl: 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
• Caroline Garcia (5) beat Katie Volynets: 6-4, 6-3
• Lesia Tsurenko beat Claire Liu: 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Lin Zhu: 6-1, 6-3
• Veronika Kudermetova (12) beat Kaia Kanepi: 7-6 (4), 6-4
• Jessica Pegula (4) beat Lauren Davis: 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-3
• Victoria Azarenka (19) beat Yue Yuan (Q): 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
• Ana Bogdan beat Liudmila Samsonova (15): 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4)
• Alycia Parks beat Anna-Lena Friedsam: 6-4, 6-3
• Cristina Bucsa beat Kamilla Rakhimova: 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (9)
• Nadia Podoroska beat Tereza Martincova: 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Barbora Strycova beat Maryna Zanevska: 6-1, 7-5
• Petra Martic (30) beat Linda Fruhvirtova: 7-5, 6-7 (5), 4-1 ret.
• Diane Parry beat Harriet Dart (WC): 6-7 (4), 6-0, 6-4

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