Kostyuk… yaaawn!! And results from here and there

The way i like to remember her

I have much better prophetic skills than Franco’s. Not that it was too difficult to predict, when she was 14, that Marta Kosyuk would have become a huge player; though, in one of my last pieces on her, I wrote that soon enough she would have started to win everything and things would have become quite boring. Well, it seems that it took 1 week to the Ukrainian girl to become quite boring, and I guess it will take 2-3 years to become utterly boring if nothing weird happens.
Let’s keep in mind that Marta was born in 2002: she is still subject to limitations in the number of pro event she can attend, due to age constraints (I think she can play 12 tournaments this year, but I’m not sure of such figure and I’m too lazy to check).

Anyway, after her exploits we spoke about during the Australian Open, Marta remained in Australia, as she was planned to play over there in the Fed Cup for the Ukrainian team. Whilst waiting, she competed in a 60k in Burnie, which she won, of course. Her life, though, was not always easy during the tournament, as she was forced twice to the third set and there were no real easy matches for her, except for two: in the quarter finals she has beaten by 6-1 6-1 Xiyu Wang, ranked 7th in the Junior Tour and of whom we have spoken during the Australian Open; the Chinese has anyway played a good tournament, as she started from the qualifications. The other fairly easy match for Marta was, believe it or not, the final, that she has won by 6-4 6-3 against that wonderful player who is Victoria Golubic, currently ranking just over 100th spot and who reached a best ranking of 51. I didn’t see any Marta’s matches in Burnie; some of them can be anyway found on youtube.
Overall, considering both ITF and WTA tournaments, Kostyuk has played ten pro events up to now, two of which in 2016, when she aged 14; she won two events: a 25k and this 60k. More, she was seminfinalist in the first pro event she played in 2017, a 15k in Antalya and reached the third round in the Australian Open starting from the qualifications: notwithstanding the little experience as a professional, she already ranks 185th in the world.

But Marta was not happy, yet: in the Fed Cup she has played against, and beaten, Daria Gavrilova , currently ranked 26th  in the world (7-6 6-3 was the final result). In her next rubber Marta is scheduled to play against Ashleigh Barty, ranked 16th WTA. The one against Gavrilova is the second win of Kostyuk against a top player; Barty shall pay attention to this girl, who is demonstrating to ba able to beat basically anyone.

Beside Kostyuk, other juniors have played in the Fed Cup this week. First of all, it’s nice to say that, after being forced to stop her activity for almost 6 months due to an injury to her ankle, Iga Swiatek (a.k.a. BerghemIga) has returned to compete in a match: she was the fourth member of the Polish team and she played the doubles against Turkey; she lost in three sets, paired with Alicja Rosolska, but, in any case, a great well come back to this young Polish girl, who I consider to be one of the most talented junior players. Croatia-Slovenia, valid for Group 1, has seen the participation of Kaja Juvan (a.k.a. the Beloved One) and Lea Boskovic, who exited the Junior Tour last year. The match between the two was won by the Croatian girl in three sets; though Juvan was able to grab 2 points in the match Slovenia played against Sweden, thus she gave a great contribution to save her country from being forced to play the relegation play-off. Elisabetta Cocciaretto will, most probably, debut in Fed Cup, as she is scheduled to play the doubles in the match between Italy and Spain.

Other juniors or young pros have competed during this week, playing in some events on the pro-tour. Paigina, who left the Junior Tour last year, has reached the semifinal in a 15k in Manacor, where she is the first seed; she has beaten in the process the strong Japanese Naho Sato, by 7-6 6-2 and she is scheduled to play both the semifinal and the final tomorrow. Federica Bilardo too played in Manacor, but lost in the first round against Cantos Siemers in three sets. Emily Appleton tried, instead, a 25k in England: she also lost in the first round, against Michaella Krajicek. A bit of a surprise was the loss in the semifinal of the 15k in Trnava of Rybakina, of whom we’ve recently spoken so well, against her junior compatriot, the Russian Sofya Lansere: compliments to Sofya for this prestigious win.

Though, the most noticeable result in this week, in my view, has been achieved by Eleonora Molinaro, who reached the final in a 25k in France, having started from the qualifications: she has beaten in three sets, in the first round, the third seed Jessica Pieri, who ranks 220 WTA and she is scheduled to play tomorrow against Fiona Ferro. The young girl from Luxembourg was, a few years ago, predicted to be one of the best juniors around but, up to now, she possibly didn’t meet these high expectations. Though, 2018 started greatly for Molinaro, as she already won a 15k in Antalya in late January and, immediately before, a grade 1 held in the Czech Republic. Maybe this will be Eleonora’s year, eventually.

Lastly, another young pro who left the Junior Tour last year has achieved a big result: I am referring to Gabriella Taylor, who reached the final of a 25k held in Australia; she is scheduled to play tomorrow against the fourth seed, Asia Muhammad.