Twenty-three-year-old Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk turned a moment of personal terror into a powerful tribute to her homeland on Sunday, as she claimed a gritty first-round victory at the Roland Garros French Open just hours after a Russian missile landed just 100 meters from her family’s residential property in Kyiv.
Seeded 15th in the singles draw, Kostyuk delivered a commanding 6-2, 6-3 win over Oksana Selekhmeteva, a former Russian player who recently acquired Spanish citizenship just four days ahead of the tournament, kicking off her Paris campaign with a result that carried far more meaning than a spot in the second round.
In an on-court interview immediately after the match, Kostyuk opened up about the terrifying morning she endured before stepping onto the Paris clay. “This morning, 100 metres from my parent’s house, a missile fell,” she said. “I’m incredibly proud of myself today, I think it was one of the most difficult matches of my life. All my thoughts and all my heart were with the people of Ukraine today. My biggest example are the Ukrainian people today.”
Speaking to reporters later, Kostyuk explained the strike was part of a massive, hours-long Russian air bombardment across Kyiv that unfolded overnight and into Sunday morning. While her family emerged unharmed, the experience shook the athlete deeply, even as she acknowledged the persistent uncertainty of life amid the ongoing invasion. “It was half of the night, it was happening throughout, like, four hours. (My family) feel okay. Obviously very scary, but, you know, it’s not the first very difficult night, not the last, so, you know, they are adapting,” she said.
Kostyuk noted that the initial 2022 Russian invasion was defined by crippling uncertainty, but Sunday’s strike was one of the most harrowing events she has lived through since the war began. “Right now, I think it was just the closest that it has ever been to my house, and this what probably makes it the most emotional,” she said. “There are better days, worse days, but yeah, this one was, I would say top three worst ones, for sure.”
Despite feeling physically ill with anxiety after receiving the news of the near-miss, Kostyuk said she never considered withdrawing from the tournament. She emphasized that so long as her loved ones remained safe, she felt obligated to compete. “Everyone is healthy, alive… So these things, you know, it’s difficult, but none of my close friends or people I know is injured or dead,” she explained. “I don’t want to think what I would do if something worse happened, but I knew that this is the day to go out and play, and it didn’t cross my mind today that I shouldn’t go out. There were obviously times in the match when I would go back to thinking about it, because most of the morning I felt sick just thinking that if it was 100 metres closer, I probably wouldn’t have a mom and a sister today.”
Kostyuk has maintained a consistent, public stance against the war since the invasion began, refusing to shake hands with Russian-born players before and after matches. She also criticized the global professional tennis tour for sidelining awareness of the conflict in recent years. “I live it always, and I have also adapted to the fact that the tour forgot about it,” she said. “I’m still trying to do things that I can do and what I can to influence, and I use my platform, I use my speeches or, whenever I have a moment to remind about it, to remind of the horror of, you know, everyday lives of people. People adapt, people forget, people move on. There is a lot of issues in the world, a lot of wars, and things that people want to support or people are thinking about.”
With her first-round win secured, Kostyuk will next face American player Katie Volynets in the second round, after Volynets defeated France’s home crowd favorite Clara Burel in straight sets.