A few hours back Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk clinched a thumping victory over Russia’s Maria Timofeeva at the Show Court Arena. Next up for the Ukrainian is the reigning US Open champion, Coco Gauff. Both Kostyuk and Gauff are the rising stars of the tennis world. A few days back Coco Gauff had revealed that she believes there isn’t much difference between winning a Grand Slam and not winning a Slam. Is it so? What does Marta Kostyuk think?

Recently the 21-year-old Ukrainian answered by putting up a question mark on Emma Raducanu‘s run to glory in 2021. Is it really hard or is it easier to achieve success at the biggest level? Here’s what Kostyuk had to say at the press conference.

Marta Kostyuk praises Leylah Fernandez’s run at the 2021 US Open

Coco Gauff had already tasted success on the biggest stage. But for Marta Kostyuk, her best performance came in the doubles event of the Australian Open last year where she reached the semifinals. Is the gap too big between winning a Grand Slam and not winning it?

Marta Kostyuk said, “It’s every day and every slam and every tournament is so unique and so different. We play in different conditions, different balls, different…Everything is different opponents. Everything is different. I think a lot depends. Someone can have a very easy draw, and someone can have extremely difficult. I have an easiest example of when Leylah and Emma were playing the final, what draw Leylah had and what draw Emma had.“

She added, “Emma, no offence, but Leylah was really fighting for her life every single match. I don’t know. It depends. I think there are players who really win this Grand Slam and they’re like, Wow, I don’t think I will ever recover from this physically and emotionally. There are players who are, like, Oh, it was fine, I might do it again. I don’t know, I think it’s so unique, I wish I experienced this to give you a proper answer. But I’m working for it. We will see.“

Talking about her incredible performance at this year’s Australian Open she said, “The first three matches that I had were extremely difficult. First one, I don’t know. First one was just it was like I was first round and first round is always a little shaky, but the other two were really solid and very tough matches. Today, for example, I had much easier. I was, like, Oh, okay, well-deserved, you know. Then we see. I don’t know. I have three more to go. We will see. Maybe I will sit here in one week and be like, Oh, you know, it was not that bad. It was actually easy. We will see.“

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Can Marta Kostyuk continue her incredible run at the ‘Happy Slam’? Well, for that she needs to outclass the American hurdle in the QFs. Even Gauff is in tremendous form this year.

Can Kostyuk give a formidable challenge to Coco Gauff?

Both of them have met only once in their career. Although Coco Gauff leads their H2H, the Ukrainian has proved her mettle in her previous matches. Despite the 40 minutes rain delay Kostyuk had crushed Timofeeva by 6-2,6-1 in 1 hour 16 minutes in her last match.

But Gauff is currently on a 9-match winning streak and she is yet to lose a match this year. Can she make yet another upset in this year’s AO? Well, we will have to wait until Tuesday to get this answer. 

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