Tennis prodigy plays in Val Gardena

Australian Open 2017: 14-year-old Marta Kostyuk wins the girls' tournament and is hailed as the new tennis prodigy. Australian Open 2018: Because of the aforementioned victory, the Ukrainian receives a wild card for qualification, which she survives unscathed. In the first round she beat Peng Shuai from China and, at 1, became the youngest player since the Swiss Martina Hingis to win a match at the Australian Open. Kostyuk continued her successful run into the third round, where she lost to her compatriot Elina Svitolina. Pressure is too great The tennis spotlight was then all focused on the young Ukrainian, but she couldn't cope with the hype and fell into a deep hole. The teenager isolated herself from the outside world in response to the (unwanted) attention she received. Health and psychological problems plagued her. After pulling herself out of the slump in May 2019, she said: “I was the first of my age to break through and the first to fall.”

This year, especially after the corona-related tennis break, Kostyuk has finally arrived in the concert of the greats. At the US Open she stormed into the third round, where she demanded everything from eventual winner Naomi Osaka 3:3, 6:7 and 6:2. The decisive set could have ended in her favor, as the Ukrainian missed five break opportunities. A month later, Kostyuk even reached the quarterfinals in doubles at the French Open. Thanks to strong results at the last tournaments of the year, she finally made it into the top 6. Kostyuk is currently ranked 100th in the world.

The athletically strong Ukrainian, whose agent is Roger Federer's coach Ivan Ljubicic, also has a connection to Jannik Sinner: She trains alongside the South Tyrolean at the Piatti Tennis Center in Bordighiera. Big favorite For this reason, it makes sense that Kostyuk travels to Selva in the middle of preparation for the season, where an ITF tournament worth $13 will take place from December 19th to 25.000th. If she wins this, it would not be the first time that a future tennis luminary has lifted a trophy in Val Gardena: in 2007, the Grand Slam winner Caroline Wozniacki, who has since retired, did this, and in 2002, the US Open winner Flavia Pennetta .

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Tennis prodigy plays in Val Gardena

She is 18 years old, Grand Slam champion among juniors, brought Naomi Osaka to the brink of defeat at this year's US Open - and is playing at the ITF tournament in Selva next week.

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