BILLIE JEAN KING CUP: ITALY VS UKRAINE

September 20, 2025

Illya Marchenko

Elina Svitolina

Marta Kostyuk

Lyudmyla Kichenok

Team Ukraine

Semi-Final Press Conference

ERRANI-PAOLINI/Kostyuk-Kichenok

6-2, 6-3

Team Italy - 2

Team Ukraine - 1

THE MODERATOR: Captain, what a great competition you've had, reaching the semifinals. Your thoughts, please.

CAPTAIN ILLYA MARCHENKO: Well, yeah, of course it's historic achievement for us to be at this stage. We kind of happy about that, about the year.

But yeah, I mean, today's match was really tight and really tough. We had all the chances to be winners today. So it's difficult to talk in a positive way about this tournament during this minute. Not in general, but during this minute it's very sad for us.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Elina, where do you think the turning point was? There was the 16-minute game in the third set which seemed to be a huge moment. Did it feel like that for you?

ELINA SVITOLINA: I wouldn't say it was a turning point, to be fair, because after I came back to 4-All, so I don't think so.

But yeah, there was a lot of long games, a lot of long rallies in a way. So yeah, disappointing match for me because obviously I was up in the match, in the second set as well. Of course, yeah, it's super sad.

Q. The doubles, how did it feel out there? The atmosphere was pretty incredible. What was the difference?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Well, I think really if you look in the match in general, like especially starting Elina's match, they were playing really incredible. I don't know at which moment it turned and why it turned around, because it was clear, especially in doubles today, how many points they were winning really out of luck. We all can be lucky sometimes, but today was really extreme. I didn't have many matches like this in my career.

Looking back at our doubles, I feel like I've done, and I think Lyuda, has done everything we could. They were better players in important moments. We were not playing as good in important points.

It was a really long match at the end. The score doesn't do it justice, for sure. But it's a tough loss. At the same time I just feel like we've never been in the position where we are right now. I'm really looking forward to playing again with this team, try again next year.

I want to be able to take everything I can from this experience and see what we can do better and move forward. I feel like as a tennis player, you really got used to losing because you lose almost every week. It's part of the game. Obviously today was really difficult day for us. We were really close.

I feel like Italy is a really great team. They're great champions. Given the fact what kind of comeback they pulled off the two days ago says a lot about them. Today, as well.

I feel like at one point luck will definitely be on our side. We just have to be patient and work towards that moment.

Q. Taking this week, what are the biggest learnings and experiences you're going to take forward?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think from my experience playing many years for the team, very important is to have good atmosphere. Not just between girls, but between all the team that are in the team. I think we've got that finally in a really, really long time, thanks to Elina and her foundation taking care of us.

I think that definitely helped us perform better, be better, just think about our job and nothing else. This is the kind of key that we found after many years. That's why I'm excited for next year because I know how far we can come. It was shown today for us.

I just feel like we lose as a team and we win as a team. I really want to support girls right now in this difficult moment, Illya and everyone who was supporting us. It's a historical moment for our country. At the same time a really sad one for us today.

We were really close, so... There is not much more to say. Yeah, I think this and just us being good players is also important in this type of competition.

Q. Illya, I would like to know if the decision was taken after the outstanding performance of Marta or playing with this couple you had already in mind against Spain or whatever?

CAPTAIN ILLYA MARCHENKO: No, we had this plan from the beginning. It was not the one-minute decision. We had options, but that was our main choice.