“Emma no offense, but…,” Marta Kostyuk reflects on Emma Raducanu’s “easy draw” victory at the 2021 US Open as she assesses her chances at the 2024 Australian Open

Marta Kostyuk finds herself in the top 8 as she is set to face Coco Gauff in a quarter-finals clash.

“Emma no offense, but…,” Marta Kostyuk reflects on Emma Raducanu’s “easy draw” victory at the 2021 US Open as she assesses her chances at the 2024 Australian Open

Emma Raducanu and Marta Kostyuk (Via Open sources)

Recently, Ukrainian youngster Marta Kostyuk cited Emma Raducanu’s historic run at the 2021 US Open as an ‘easy draw.’ To prove her point on how the luck of the draw affects a Grand Slam run, she used the example of Raducanu and how she won with an easy draw.

Emma Raducanu, who had qualified for the main draw at the 2021 US Open had to face a series of unseeded players and a lucky loser along with a couple of top 20 players en route to her maiden Grand Slam final. On the other hand, her opponent Leylah Fernandez had to play every match like her life depended on it to make it to the finals. Where Raducanu played against unseeded players, Fernandez beat the top-ranked players like Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina to try her luck in the finals. 

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Despite a valiant effort, it was Raducanu who became the youngest Brit in over 40 years to win the US Open title. Thus proving Marta Kostyuk’s point on how luck on the draws decides the run of a player. Marta Kostyuk said to the AO Press:

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“I have an easiest example of when Leylah and Emma were playing the final, what draw Leylah had and what draw Emma had. Emma, no offense, but Leylah was really fighting for her lif e every single match.” 
Martya Kostyuk to the media

Marta Kostyuk wins another emotional match as she books her ticket to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open

Young Marta Kostyuk returned from a 3-month break and now finds herself in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. 

Marta Kostyuk
Marta Kostyuk (via The Telegraph)

Having played really good tennis, the Ukrainian won an emotional match against Maria Timofeeva to find herself in the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam. En route to her next match, Kostyuk revealed the difference she found in winning a slam and not winning one. Talking mostly about the luck of the draw, the Ukrainian described two kinds of people, one who truly won a Grand Slam and would not be able to recover from that win while others take it casually and are ready to do it again. 

Having said that, Kostyuk found herself with a decent draw which got extremely tough as the tournament progressed. She beat a couple of unranked players and No.25 seed Elise Martens to advance to the third round. Luckily for the Ukrainian, she also won her match against a qualifier, Timofeeva in the fourth round. The 21-year-old now faces the likes of the top-ranked American Coco Gauff. With the draw only getting harder, the Ukrainian has to earn her way to the finals. 

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