Melbourne: Kostyuk vs Masarova

This final article on the Australian Open (sorry for being late) is to be considered as second part of the one you can find here: https://www.tennisunderworld.it/2017/01/29/kostyukno-more-crazy/, and it focuses more on how the finals actually developed, offering also further details on the aspects of Marta’s game that most impressed me, as they were briefly mentioned in the previous article.

The match featured Rebeka Masarova, 1^st seed, against raising star Marta Kostyuk, 11^th seed. Kostyuk won the toss and decided to serve: she was immediately aggressive, hitting nice and clean shots, apart from one drop-shot which was far too long and offered an easy winner to Masarova. With an ace Kostyuk managed to hold and, immediately after, she broke her opponent by hitting a couple of great returns. Though, Masarova managed to break back, being herself too aggressive on returns and winning the game due to a missed forehand by Kostyuk, which is signed by Slam Tracker as an unforced, but which I thought to be a “good” mistake, a sensible one.

The following game was played badly by Kostyuk, who hit a couple of out-of-control returns and allowed Masarova to equalise on 2-2. I thought that after such a bad game there was the danger that one of Marta’s “crazy moment” would have arrived. Instead, to my surprise, in the following game, after an unforced by Masarova, I saw Kostyuk hit a variation for the first time, playing at least one shot high and with more spin than usual, even if she was not in a defensive situation (in the previous matches I saw that Kostyuk, even when defending, often attempted to hit winners, which had though really low chances of success); further, she managed to hold on to a long rally, winning it without taking unnecessary risks. Kostyuk held her serve and, thanks to a couple of winners she managed to break again and to confirm the break in the following service game. Up to now Kostyuk was pretty consistent and in particular she managed not to lose temper after the mistakes she made, even if blatant (such as after having attempted one of those awful drop-shots, which from time to time she hits). Marta was also going for the net fairly frequently, as she is used to do: in the first set she went for the net 9 times overall, obtaining 6 points.

With a 5-2 lead, Kostyuk continued to be aggressive when returning and gained a setpoint, which was saved by Masarova with a good second serve. A couple of missed returns by Kostyuk – who was, especially on the first one, maybe even too aggressive – allowed Masarova to hold her serve. A bad backhand volley (following a good attack) and a missed forehand by Kostyuk, followed by a real good passing shot by Masarova on a further attack by Kostyuk allowed Masarova to break back. I was waiting for a “crazy moment”: even if nothing in Marta’s the expression pointed to “craziness” up to now, was this the right time? On the contrary, on 5-4 Kostyuk went back on the court as a fury, hitting immediately a real good return and a winner with her backhand. Masarova, in return, started to increase topspin and height of her shots, trying to variate a bit; though a couple of mistakes by her gifted Kostyuk with another setpoint, which the Swiss girl saved with an ace (Masarova was serving well at this stage). Following another great serve and a nice attack, Masarova was able to equalise on 5-5 (and she deserved that; Masarova was playing fine): at this stage, I must said I fully agreed with Marta’s Shakespearean monologues, even if I couldn’t understand them, since they were held in Russian. Marta surprised me again because, despite Shakespeare, she continued to stay focused: thanks to a back-hand winner, a fantastic drop-shot and a typical serve and forehand scheme she managed to regain a 6-5 lead and, immediately after, to break Masarova and win the set. I was very impressed by the mental strength that Kostyuk showed throughout the first set.

At the beginning of the second set Masarova became much more aggressive: thanks to many successful attacks, a double fault by Kostyuk and an impressive passing shot, Masarova broke immediately her opponent. The Swiss girl continued to attack also in the following game and managed to go up 40-0. Marta though reacted fiercely, scoring three points through a noticeable forehand winner, a very neat drop-shop and a tight crosscourt passing shot: another beauty. This was a really long game, with break balls in favour of Kostyuk and opportunities for Masarova to extend her lead. Kostyuk continued to play aggressively; further, I had the impression that if she could hold against Masarova attacks, most of time she was able to win the point. Finally after many, many attempts, Kostyuk managed to break back.

In the following games Masarova continued to press Kostyuk, to go more and more to the net and to serve well: I had the impression that Masarova, in order not to be attacked by Kostyuk, kept increasing the offensiveness of her game. Stats show that in the second set Masarova went to the net often, 11 times, managing to win 10 points: her attacks were deadly and the volleys she was left with were just conclusive shots of points already won. Playing as such, Masarova managed to win the second set real fast by 6-1: in her post-match interview, Kosyuk said that, after having won the first set and the really long second game of the second set (which lasted something like 12 minutes) she relaxed a bit and let Masarova take the lead, and that on 3-1 in favour of Masarova, she decided to basically give up the set. Be it as it may, I liked a lot the attitude of Masarova and her decision to play more aggressively: I think that such decision was crucial to allow Masarova to win the set; by contrast, I felt that Kostyuk could not do much more than what she was doing: I had no particular remarks to raise on her game.

After the second set, Kostyuk had a toilet break (intelligently), regrouped, and came back on the court hyper-focused: following a great return and a couple of bad volleys by Masarova, Kostyuk broke her opponent. Masarova, though, continued to attack and attack, and managed to break back immediately, without allowing her opponent to score single a point on her serve. At this stage I had the impression that Masarova was going to win, since Kostyuk seemed to be too pressed to oppose an effective counter play.

In the following game, though, Kostyuk showed a couple of times that whenever Masarova’s attacks were not so precise, a hard price was due to be paid and broke again the Swiss with a fantastic crosscourt passing shot; but again, despite Kostyuk’s attempts, Masarova immediately managed to break back. I think that this was the turning point of the match. Both players managed to hold their serve twice, but from now on I observed that Kostyuk started to go more and more frequently to the net. Checking the stats, one can see that Kostyuk went to the net 34 times during the whole match (a lot), but she did so 17 times in the third set, as many times as she did in the other two! She did not win so many points (10/17), but I was really impressed: I am quite sure she started to attack so much in order not to be attacked herself: as said, Masarova’s offensive game was giving many troubles to Kostyuk. I believe that it was this very sound tactical decision, taken by a 14 year old girl in a Grand Slam final, that allowed Marta to win the Australian Open. And I was very pleased with such a display of tactical awareness by Kostyuk: I was pleased that she proved that what I wrote in my previous articles was wrong. Kostyuk continued to go to the net; though, it was through two marvellous passing shots that Kostyuk managed to break and to ensure herself the chance to serve for the match. When serving, Marta managed to stay calm and on 40-15 she converted the match point with a forehand winner, falling then down to relieve all the tension she had accumulated.
In the last article I basically anticipated all the general comments I had on this beautiful match, so it’s useless to repeat them here. After this win, Marta Kostyuk will rank 7^th in the Junior ITF, whilst Masarova sticks to her 4^th position.

I hope to see these players in Milan for the Italian Open, but Kostyuk has already anticipated that this year she will play only Grand Slams juniors (so I am disappointed: she is cruel, isn’t she?).

Having finished these “portrait” articles focused mainly on Marta Kostyuk, I take a break from the Junior tour since there are no major events or events that interest me until the Italian campaign in April-March. I will write on some Pro events if something interesting happens with respect to players who have dominated last year’s junior tour (Potapova, Pervushina, Juvan, Masarova, Kostyuk herself, who will play a few Pro events etc.). In any case, I anticipate I would like to continue this kind of “portraits” articles, maybe focusing on Iga Swiatek: she will play the qualifications in the 15k in Bergamo, which I will try to attend. So, now the 12 people in the world who read me know about my planned schedule and they can leave a comment, if they wish, to tell me if they agree or not with it.

Tommy Hemp