MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 2, 2026

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

M. KOSTYUK/M. Andreeva

6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Marta, congratulations, your first WTA 1000 title. Can you just talk about your whole week and how proud you are of yourself and your performance.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah, I mean, obviously to win here is incredible. I always had really bad record here up until last year. So, yeah, very exciting. I wanted to enjoy this match as much as possible, no matter the outcome. This is the goal I achieved, and for me winning it is just a bonus.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Mirra had some moments in the second set, 3-1, and even early in the first set. You took your risk, or you play like this on clay or all around?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah, I wanted to start the match putting pressure on her. I was serving really well today.

Regarding the second set, I mean, she played really, really good three games. I just wanted to keep doing the same thing, and it worked out. But obviously both sets were super close. I had break points down when I was serving for the set. Then she had two set points. So it could go any way, but very happy to finish this match in two sets.

Q. You mentioned on court about kind of it's taken a long time to get to this point. I know it's probably a long story, but could you kind of reflect on you when you were 15 and you break through, what that journey has been like, and what the challenges were to reach this point.

MARTA KOSTYUK: I'm going to try to make this story short. I think in the beginning of this year I told my team that I finally feel that the achievements that I had when I was 15 years old are not, how do you call it, it doesn't have a weight on me anymore. Because I was living for many years in that state of everyone expecting big results from me. Like, almost winning, you know, having such good results being so young was almost like a curse.

I think when I freed myself from that actually it's incredible. I'm very proud of myself that I managed to achieve all of that when I was 14 and 15 years old. It definitely gave me just the freedom to enjoy this sport and just play it. Yeah, it's incredibly long journey, especially with the road that I took. I was growing up being coached by my mom. It's never easy to go out of this relationship and to be able to do that, you know, having my mom as the closest person in my life. I always call her when I need support or when I just want to talk to her. I actually had a short training camp with her before clay court season, so I definitely should thank her for all the wins that I've had in the past month.

Yeah, I know a lot of difficult stories when parents are coaching their kids. But I'm happy I got out on the other side better, a better person, better player. It definitely took a lot of struggling and a lot of difficult moments.

For me, you know, almost nothing changes. I'm a Masters champion right now, but, you know, I want to just keep doing the same thing and keep working and keep enjoying this journey. It's about the journey, it's not about destination.

Q. You talk about your record here in Madrid, in your first four editions just one victory. What changed last year in terms of mentality and game to believe that you could win here?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I don't know (laughing). I don't know. When Sandra told me today, she was like, you know, when we came here our first time being at this tournament was two years ago, and I lost first round. And she was like, I don't understand why she doesn't like to play here, the conditions suit her game really well. And I never saw it that way.

Then last year I got injured before Stuttgart and I didn't manage to defend my final. I came here a bit earlier, still a bit injured from my ab. I think being a little bit injured just gave me a different perspective on the game here or, you know, what I should do here.

And it was working out really well. I had unbelievable quarterfinal match last year. And, you know, this year it was even better. Yeah, I think I don't know exactly answer to that, for sure.

Q. This win takes you to number 23 to 15 in the ranking. What does this jump mean to you?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I don't know (laughing). I don't focus on the rankings. My goal, not even my goal, but I was, I would be very happy if I finished clay court season in top 20. I didn't think about, you know, a specific number or anything. I just wanted to be as consistent as possible. I didn't think about it. I still don't think about the ranking, because ranking is just a consequence of what you do on the court. Yeah, nothing changes. Probably I'll get a bit better draws, but, you know, at the end, all the players are super solid and really good. So I don't focus on that. As I said, I just want to keep working and enjoying.

Q. It's your first WTA 1000 title, and I'm sure you enjoy the victory today. I want to ask you, what's your limit now? How do you approach Rome and Roland Garros?

MARTA KOSTYUK: You know Roland Garros is in three weeks, and I didn't give it one thought yet. Because, you know, there is still Rome, there is Strasbourg, there is a lot of just days of work. I played really bad in Paris last year. I had absolutely terrible match, and I was really depressed over that for some time.

I had good run in Madrid and Rome, and then I probably had high expectations for myself, I don't know, but it was probably one of the most difficult losses in my career.

I also never really play good in Paris, so, you know, I'm coming back to the basics and what made me win here this week. I want to enjoy and be open to, you know, suffering opportunities and different challenges that I will face on the way. But, yeah, Roland Garros is still super far, so I don't know. I hope to be healthy, and that's all that matters.

Q. You said it took many years to reach this point, and now you have won for the first time here in Madrid. I want to ask you what, does this trophy taste like?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Like champagne, for sure. That was the first thing I tasted after I won. I don't know. Honestly, watching this tournament when I was a kid and remembering that year when it was on blue clay, you know, that was mind blowing. Also all the people that have won it before me, I would never think that this could be possible. It's one of the strongest tournaments of the year, and everyone plays super good, especially right now. So it definitely tastes good, but, you know, I just want to enjoy this today and that's it.

Q. You and your team are the first to ever hold up boxer shorts in a trophy presentation. Can you explain the meaning of that?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah, so we have a tournament laundry. Sometimes some things mix up, we get someone's socks or whatever, something always happens. And last year we got these shorts and it was written "lucky shorts" on them. So Sandra was like, I'm not giving it away. So she kept it.

And she kept, you know, when I was winning last year, she would bring it up after I win. It was like our lucky charm. We don't have many, but this was just our coincidental thing. This year she wouldn't travel with it, it was just like just here. Before going to here she drove to her dad's house to pick them up to bring them in Madrid. Then we just made the joke, and we said, Okay, if I win, we have to take a picture with the shorts everywhere.

I actually made my husband, like I told my husband that he should wear it on the pictures, like over his pants. But he didn't do it, so it's okay.