How was her season
2022 hasn’t shone as the previous season for the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk: in 2021 she was reaching for the first time the last 16 in a Grand Slam, playing in important semifinals and joining WTA Top 50, also for the first time.
This year, her most significant results are the third round in the Australian Open and the semifinals in Granby (WTA 250).
Kostyuk, 22, is on the upper side of the Main Draw at Transylvania Open, together with Krejcikova and Bogdan. She faces an uncomfortable opponent in the first round, Italian Jasmine Paolini.
Playing style
Marta’s tennis implies risk and initiatives taking, and an impressive execution speed. She hits hard, always trying to meet the ball early. Most of the time her intentions are to dictate, to impose the rhythm and to hit as many winners as possible.
Bigger picture
No. 6 seed in Cluj, Kostyuk is one of the most promising players in the circuit. World Junior No. 2 and Australian Open Junior winner in 2017, in 2018 she became the first 2002-born player to enter a Grand Slam Main Draw (at Australian Open). And thanks to her first round victory against Shuai Peng, she also became the youngest player winning a Grand Slam match since 1996.
Marta is still at the beginning of her career and obviously trying to find her identity, but she surely has a huge space for progress. Her second participation in Transylvania Open is a great opportunity for the Romanian tennis fans to watch a very promising player, who is in full ascent and building her way up to the top.
