Having Treaded an Extremely Similar Path to Coco Gauff, 21YO WTA Player Reveals Hard-Hitting Life Lessons From Tennis – ‘It’s Not Easy..’

Few would have bet Coco Gauff to struggle after her shining victory against Venus Williams in 2019. After making such a great start when she was 15, she struggled ever since before beginning to find her footing. Sharing similarities with her, a Ukrainian player had a similar start to her career in a grand slam but is now finding it difficult to keep up with other players. The reasoning for her struggles can be understood via her mental struggles that she shared, with a drive to get back to winning ways.

The 21-year-old shares the trajectory of her career with Coco Gauff. But their track was only similar till the last few months before Gauff started finding her rhythm. Now, Marta Kostyuk is struggling and the pressure on her mind is even higher than before.

Marta Kostyuk shares mindset during struggles

Marta Kostyuk began her career with a shining stint in a grand slam. She won the first two rounds in her first grand slam when she was just 15. Many expected her to improve immensely since then, but Kostyuk has not progressed in any tournaments. Unable to play at the level she saw for herself, she is stressed constantly. She revealed her mental struggles in an interview with the WTA.

“It’s my constant state of mind since I’m 15,” Kostyuk said. “Even not being close to a favorite, I still expect myself to put up a good fight and win. I’m trying to not be like that, but it’s not easy.”

What should’ve been a perfect start to a career has become a tainted past for Kostyuk. Due to a great achievement during her teens, Kostyuk finds herself in a difficult mental space. While she has not skyrocketed like her compatriots, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, she has experienced growth over the past few years.

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But it is even more difficult for her to not compare herself to the rank 2 and 3 constantly. Her pattern put her in an even more damaging situation, but she is trying to move away from it. 

Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek leave Kostyuk behind

The 19-year-old American sensation and Poland’s star have found themselves making great strides tournament after tournament. Kostyuk saw them advance to the top 10 and then the top 5 while she is still struggling to enter the top 20. Competition on the senior tour is high, and the Ukrainian player tries not to be demotivated as she finds herself drawing comparisons constantly. 

In the same interview with the WTA, she said she has realized that there is no point in constantly demeaning herself. “There is nothing you can change about the fact that you lost. You can see it two ways, positive and negative.” The positive would be to sit down and discuss why the loss happened. The negative would be to beat herself up for losing, which yields nothing.  

Kostyuk used to be in the latter mindset constantly but is now evolving mentally before she can grow physically. The changes in her performances are starting to show, and we might see a bigger jump sometime soon.

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