Marta Kostyuk breaks down after missile strike near family home, then wins at French Open

PARIS: Not long after Marta Kostyuk walked into her post-match press conference at Roland Garros, she held up her phone, revealing a photograph of a burning high-rise building. The apartment block, which was struck by a powerful Russian missile, stands barely 100 metres from her parents’ home in Kyiv. Her mother, sister and an elderly relative were inside when it happened.Kostyuk received the image at 8 am, some three hours before her French Open first-round match on Sunday. The 23-year-old broke down in tears, but still laced up and walked onto court.The 15th seed at Roland Garros beat Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-2, 6-3 in 78 minutes.Later, Kostyuk admitted the scheduling may have helped her. Not only was she spared the worst of the 31-degree heat by playing early, she also had little time to sit alone with her thoughts.“I didn't know what to expect from myself. I didn't know how my focus was going to be, how I'm going to be able to control my emotions or my thoughts,” she said. “There were obviously times in the match when I would go back to thinking about it, because most of the morning I felt sick. If it was 100 meters closer, I probably wouldn't have my mom and sister.” “I'm also very happy that I played the first match, because I don't know what would be the outcome if I played last, for example,” she said. “ but I'm very proud of myself today, of how we all handled it, and, you know, happy to be in the second round and that everyone is alive.”For Kostyuk, who struck 20 winners on the day, it was the closest the war had come to her family, yet withdrawing from the match never crossed her mind.“I knew that this is the day to go out and play,” she said. “My biggest example is Ukrainian people. I woke up in the morning today and I looked at all these people who woke up and kept living their lives, kept helping people who are in need.”Kostyuk has endured tougher moments over the last four years.“The beginning of the war was probably the most difficult because of the unknown, we didn’t know what was going on,” she said of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “My whole family was there, we had 17 people in the house. It was just the unknown then. Right now it was the closest that it has ever been to my house, so this is what probably makes it the most emotional.”While Ukrainian players initially received widespread support following the outbreak of war, Wimbledon barred Russian and Belarusian players from the 2022 Championships. The ban was lifted a year later, with players from both nations allowed to return under neutral status and some conditions.“I have also adapted to the fact that the tour forgot about it,” she said of the WTA Tour. “I'm still trying to do things that I can do and also use my platform, I use my speeches whenever I have a moment to remind people about it.” “People adapt, people forget, people move on,” she said. “There are a lot of issues in the world, a lot of wars, and things that people want to support or people are thinking about, and it obviously makes sense. People move on.” The 23-year-old Kostyuk will take on American Katie Volynets in the second round on Wednesday.In other matches on Sunday, second seed Alexander Zverev stopped Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.Among the women, American Hailey Baptiste rallied to beat the 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcokova 6-7 (7), 7-6 (6), 6-2 in just under three-hours. Eighth seed Mirra Andreeva stopped Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-3.