ELINA SVITOLINA left teenager Marta Kostyuk in tears after giving her a tennis “lesson”.
Kostyuk’s Australian Open fairytale ended in a 6-2 6-2 defeat by fellow Ukrainian Svitolina, the No 4 seed.
Kostyuk, 15, was asked why she was so upset after a breakthrough tournament in which she had become the youngest player for more than 20 years to reach the third round of a Grand Slam.
The 2017 junior Aussie Open champion said: “Because I know that I could play much better.
“It was, like, honestly I played really, really bad today. Credits to her, of course. I’m not saying she’s bad player. I’m just saying I played bad.
“It was for the first time I was playing against top five player in the world.”
So what did Kostyuk take from the experience?
Kostyuk said: “How much you have to pay Svitolina to have one-hour lesson? So I got it for free.”
LATEST IN TENNIS
Svitolina, whose boyfriend is Hampshire and England cricketer Reece Topley, is the only seed left in her quarter of the draw.
Her next opponent will be Czech qualifier Denisa Allertova.
The 23 year old, who did a raunchy photoshoot for Ukrainian magazine XXL last month, will become the new world No 1 if she wins the tournament.
Leave a comment