THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 9, 2026

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

L. NOSKOVA/M. Kostyuk

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Marta, not the result you wanted today, but can you take positives from reaching the semifinals?

MARTA KOSTYUK: 100%. All positives. I mean, as I said after the third round, I'm very privileged to be here. Nothing changed today. I'm happy with the run. If someone told me two weeks ago I'm going to be here, I would take it without thinking.

So everything's fine.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Obviously you lost your second Grand Slam semifinal in a month. Are these two defeats comparable? Can you compare also the emotions you're feeling after those two matches?

MARTA KOSTYUK: For me, no, cannot compare them at all. Like I said before the match, I think today I actually had a match played. I don't think that was the case in Paris at all. I mean, all credit to her, she played unbelievable today. The serving was insane.

Sandra told me all her worst sides of the direction, her serve quality was 9.5. Doesn't get better than this. I know I'm a good returner. Not much I could do today. Not many chances.

I mean, it can happen. Just a pity it happened in the semifinal. There is nothing I could do. I know I did everything I could. I move on and I'm excited for U.S. swing.

Q. What was the toughest for you today? How much of it was how good she was playing, and maybe how much of it was preventing you from finding your game?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Well, I think it's connected. Yeah, for sure, her serving so well prevented me to even -- okay, I broke her once, but generally I almost didn't even come close to break points or anything.

It was difficult. I wasn't even serving that bad today. Just, first of all, she was really good on second-serve return. I felt obviously more under pressure because I don't remember what was her first-serve percentage, but it was insane. She won like 90% of first serve, which is crazy, especially against someone like me who returns well.

It was tough. Again, I tried my best. All I can take is this.

Q. What is the biggest good things that you take away from this tournament?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think at this moment I'm the most happy with the freedom that I gave myself to try different things on the court and just to play tennis. Again, grass was not my best surface. I don't think it still is.

For sure I'm super happy with how I deal with the losses. I mean, it's one thing to talk about this, but then once you lose, it's how you deal with it. Right now I'm sitting here and I really feel like I won today.

It's all that matters.

Q. Focus on the two last games of each set. At 4-5 you served. Did she increase her level? Did you feel some kind of emotion? What made these two games so decisive?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Good question.

Well, I think I was under pressure the whole match. Because she started serving first in both sets, I was always behind in the score. It's not easy, and I think different factors.

But she played good. I didn't serve really well in both of these games. So I think it's combination of things.

Q. It seems in some moments of the match that you were a little tired, and the heat also was making some problem. Looks like you were struggling on the heat and maybe all the matches you had before.

MARTA KOSTYUK: I don't agree. Yeah, I wasn't struggling with the heat at all. I thought it will feel worse than it was. Okay, I mean, first of all, I don't think we had a lot of rallies that were more than five shots today. So yeah, I was fine. I wasn't really tired.

I mean, again, she was playing really good, so...

Q. You were irritated with something in the moment?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Mostly I was irritated today with how many lines she hit on the serve. That was it. This was the only thing I was irritated with today (smiling).

Q. 24 hours ago you played the perfect game almost. It looked like the momentum was swinging when you hit the backhand down the line. Did you feel a bit of a momentum swing there?

MARTA KOSTYUK: For sure. It looked like this. I had really good rallies. She made some mistakes. So I want to use that opportunity. But then again, she served unbelievable on 3-All. I was like, Okay, back again to the same thing.

I mean, again, I did my best. There is not much to talk about in this match, in my opinion. I just go back to work and that's it.

Q. Obviously back-to-back Grand Slam semifinals. You couldn't have done too much more in this match. What do you feel you need to add to your game to make the Grand Slam final in the future?

MARTA KOSTYUK: A little bit of luck maybe would be good. I didn't have any in both matches.

I mean, honestly, jokes aside, I think it's important factor, because a lot of things need to align for you to win the title. To play a good match, to be at the level where I am, it's not an easy thing to do. That for sure.

Again, I don't know. It's difficult to even compare these matches, because for me they are super different. It's not like there is a pattern that happens and I'm like, Oh, I need to change this, because it happened twice.

There is always something that you can get better at: return, serve, not rushing, your focus, everything. Everything has to be a constant improvement.

I cannot point out, like, one or two things that I think. First of all, I didn't even talk to Sandra about the match yet, so it's going to happen tomorrow or maybe when we start practicing.

But yeah, I mean, two times. I played my first semifinal one month ago, and now I'm playing second. It's a bit of a short time span for these things to kind of create a pattern in some way. I'm hoping I'm going to have a lot more opportunities.

Right now, I mean, I'm grateful to have these two semifinals.

Q. Back-to-back semifinals at a Grand Slam, does it somehow become the new standard for you?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I try not to make it one because it's very easy to get used to good things, you know? I want to cherish this moment and I want to appreciate of how far we've all come, me and my team.

You don't know how your life is going to look like tomorrow, today, whenever. Hopefully I will get more opportunities, as I said. But you never know if you will.

I don't know. It's just, again, I'm happy to be where I am. Best ranking now. Going back to practice in few days, back to work.