Kostyuk continues dream clay run in Paris
Ukrainian only player among women and men to remain unbeaten on clay this season
The dream run continues for Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, the only player in both the women’s and men’s sections who is undefeated on clay this year. The 23-year-old on Tuesday battled past fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in three sets at the French Open to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final.
Kostyuk, who dumped out four-time champion Iga Swiatek in the last 16, beat Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and goes on to face Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday for a place in the final.
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"I'm very happy I found a way. It was very difficult in the first two sets," said Kostyuk.
Kostyuk extended her unbeaten run on clay this season to 17 matches. She is bidding for a third title on the surface after wins in Madrid and Rouen.
"I still think it's very far. I still have two matches to play," added Kostyuk.
Earlier, Andreeva outclassed Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3 to book her spot in the semi-finals.
The Russian eighth seed needed just under an hour on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the last four at Roland Garros for the second time in three years.
The crushing win brought to an end a fairytale run for 36-year-old Cirstea, who will retire at the end of the season. The in-form Romanian reached the quarter-finals in Paris for the first time since 2009.
"I knew that this match wouldn't be easy and I'd have to put 200 percent of my focus to win," Andreeva said.
"I'm super happy I was able to do it and tried to play aggressive throughout the whole match."
Andreeva, 19, reached the last eight in 2025 before falling in straight sets to French sensation Lois Boisson.
When rain started falling over the French capital on Tuesday morning and Andreeva realised the match would take place under a closed roof, she said she started immediately having flashbacks to her bad-tempered loss from 12 months ago.
“I was actually joking a little bit this morning, because it was raining, and I knew that we would play with a closed roof. I was just saying that I have little bit of flashbacks to last year,” she said.
“I was just trying to have flashbacks only about the weather and only about the court with closed roof, not about how I played.”
