Kostyuk faces Andreeva in French Open women’s semifinal after Russia-Ukraine match-up set

Updates from Paris with Shnaider v Chwalinska to follow Mail Katy | Sabalenka ‘wants to quit tennis’ after exitSalut! At the start of the tournament we were wondering how we’d cope without ‘just’ Carlos Alcaraz. But then Jannik Sinner departed and Novak Djokovic too, and then Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff along with nearly all of the men’s and women’s top ten, and it’s still been joyeux and amusant and incroyable. And after Aryna Sabalenka snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday, guaranteeing two first-time grand slam champions this weekend, there’s a wonderfully exciting sense of the unknown and the feeling that anything could happen on women’s semi-finals day – but it’s also impossible to ignore the shadow that Russia’s war in Ukraine has cast over the draw.No one has felt that shadow more painfully this fortnight than Marta Kostyuk, who found out hours before her first-round match that a missile had struck close to her family home in Kyiv. Aged 23, it has taken Kostyuk time as a player to piece her rich talents together. Now, fuelled by the knowledge she represents something so much bigger than herself while simultaneously being able to put tennis into perspective, she’s on a 17-match winning run on clay and is playing with the belief she belongs at the top – but in Russia’s Mirra Andreeva she faces the highest-ranked player left who was already being ordained as a future slam champion when she burst into the semi-finals as a precocious 17-year-old in 2024. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk faces Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva as both players bid for a first grand slam final, before Diana Shnaider meets qualifier Maja Chwalinska

Ukrainian pride will once again be on the line when Marta Kostyuk faces Russia’s Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals of a wide-open women’s draw at Roland Garros on Thursday. After world number one Aryna Sabalenka crashed out in the quarter-finals, Andreeva, the eighth seed, is now the highest-ranked player left in the tournament. The other […]

Ukraine’s Kostyuk is due to face Russia’s Mirra Andreeva in the French Open semi-finals

PARIS  — Marta Kostyuk, the best player on clay this season and a vocal supporter of Ukraine amid the war with Russia, will play her first major semifinal at the French Open against a Russian. Kostyuk won an intense all-Ukraine quarterfinal against Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 on Tuesday. That set up Kostyuk against Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, who thumped Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3. In men’s play, 20-year-old Jakub Mensik ended the run of Brazil’s Joao Fonseca with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory. “It was one of my best performances so far,” Mensik said. The 19-year-old Fonseca […]...Keep on reading: Andreeva, Kostyuk set up Russia-Ukraine clash in French Open semis

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk faces Russia's Mirra Andreeva in semifinal after beating Elina Svitolina at Roland Garros.