By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday January 21, 2024
Within the midst of private turmoil, Ukrainian athletes are thriving on the Australian Open.
Marta Kostyuk, who broke by to succeed in her first main quarterfinal on Sunday, defeating Maria Timofeeva, 6-2, 6-1, has not been shy of reminding the general public that Ukraine is in dire straits, and chastising journalists who stopped masking the story just because tales about Ukraine don’t get as a lot site visitors as they did firstly of the conflict.
Large outcome for 🇺🇦 tennis 🤩
🎉 A brand new nationwide document at Slams: 3 Ukrainian gamers will play within the 4th spherical (Marta Kostyuk, Elina Svitolina & Dayana Yastremska).
We’re so-so proud! 🥹
What a present for all of the followers right here! 👏 pic.twitter.com/hgAa1wOGkP— Ukrainian Tennis • BTU (@ukrtennis_eng) January 20, 2024
“The conflict remains to be there. Persons are nonetheless dying each day. I nonetheless do not perceive what all these gamers are doing right here,” 21-year-old Kostyuk mentioned earlier within the week. “Nothing actually modified in my world. I really feel like on the whole it is a number of processes occurring to come back up to now the place folks overlook about it as a result of, yeah, folks get used to it.”
Kostyuk urged folks to not turn into complacent in regards to the injustice that’s nonetheless occurring to the Ukrainian folks.
“I perceive that everybody has their very own points, and everybody is targeted on their factor. I believe I am right here to remind everybody on a regular basis that it is nonetheless on, and it needs to be stopped. It is not regular that it is occurring,” she mentioned.
“My complete household is in Kyiv proper now. My mother sends me movies when there are missiles flying over their home. I watch this. To me it is unimaginable that it is nonetheless happening, and it has been virtually two years – I really feel just like the west tries to silence all the things down, like to speak much less about it, to not escalate something, however in actuality, the truth that I am residing in, all the things could be very removed from being over.”
Roaring into the quarterfinals 🗣️@marta_kostyuk knocks out Timofeeva, 6-2, 6-1.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/UDU17GaRkf
— wta (@WTA) January 21, 2024
Kostyuk may very well be joined by two different Ukrainians within the quarterfinals – Elina Svitolina and Dayana Yastremska are set to play spherical of 16 matches on Monday.
Regardless of her success, and the success of her compatriots, Kostyuk says that life on tour might be harrowing due to the conflict.
“Generally the information just isn’t nice, and it could actually shift the temper and shift your preventing spirit and so forth as a result of there are occasions the place you actually are like on the sting of giving up and on the sting of not understanding why the world is like this and never the opposite method,” she mentioned. “I simply attempt to develop by it and I attempt to set up myself in several methods, not even for folks, however for myself, to start with.
“I believe we’ll simply carry on going and profitable.”