Marta Kostyuk stuns eighth seed Maria Sakkari with comeback win; protesters disrupt play briefly

LONDON – Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk battled back from a set down and dealt with three rain interruptions to beat eighth seed Maria Sakkari 0-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Wednesday and move into Wimbledon’s second round.

She is just the third player in the Open era to beat a top-10 seeded player at the grass-court Slam after losing the first set 6-0.

The 21-year-old had looked out for the count after the first set against Sakkari’s flawless power game but recovered after a lengthy rain interruption in the first set and another in the second to turn the match around.

Sakkari made a flawless start and bagged two breaks to move 5-0 up with Kostyuk’s error count rising sharply, but the 28th-ranked Ukrainian got some respite when rain stopped play.

The Greek initially looked undisturbed by the rain suspension, taking the first set soon after the restart.

Kostyuk, however, turned the tables in the second set with aggressive play that forced Sakkari into more unforced errors.

“Probably I have never been interrupted twice,” she said of the two rain suspensions and the brief interruption early in the first set.

“Every time I was going into a rain break, I was going into different emotions,” added Kostyuk, who was also emotional several times during the match.

“I was crying during the breaks. I tried to figure out what was happening. I tried to come back into the match. It was not easy.”

Things were more straightforward for 11th seed Daria Kasatkina and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Kasatkina made swift and short work of British wild card Jodie Burrage 6-0, 6-2 in an hour.

Despite a wobble at the start of the second set when the Russian dropped her serve, the partisan Centre Court crowd found little to cheer during the rain-interrupted first match of a damp day.

Kasatkina, who beat American Caroline Dolehide in her opening match on Monday, found herself in the third round before many first-round matches had been completed, because of heavy rain that washed out nearly 70 matches on Tuesday.

The Russian said it was tough to play a Briton on Centre Court.

“I was nervous as well to play on the best court in the world,” she said in an interview on court.

Kasatkina reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2018 and plans to do better in 2023.

“I hope I have improved since then,” she said.

Swiatek was similarly clinical, winning 6-2, 6-0 against Sara Sorribes Tormo in 70 minutes.

In the men’s draw, Russian Daniil Medvedev fought off the spirited efforts of British world No. 391 Arthur Fery with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 20-year-old wild card.

Medvedev, 27, has only once reached the fourth round, though he missed the 2022 tournament due to the ban on Russian players.

“I was pretty nervous, I didn’t get to play yesterday so really happy to be back,” he said.

“Thank you for the nice welcome, especially against Arthur, a British guy. It was amazing as I didn’t know what reception I would get and it was unbelievable.

“I’m not loved everywhere for who I am, sometimes I get crazy on the court, but I am going to be loving my time here and I hope I prolong it.”

Protesters briefly interrupted play twice on Wednesday, releasing orange ticker tape mixed with jigsaw puzzle pieces on Court 18 during a men’s singles match.

The first incident saw two protesters from Just Stop Oil run onto the court holding boxes marked as 1,000-piece jigsaws of Centre Court and sprinkled the contents, halting play between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro.

Security staff quickly removed the individuals, one of whom sat down cross-legged on the turf. Neither resisted.

The crowd booed the protesters with some heard shouting “get off”. Ground staff then swept the court and there appeared to be no damage.

Later on, a similar protest incident occurred during the match between Katie Boulter and Daria Saville.

Security had been beefed up for the grass-court Grand Slam, one of the jewels of the British sporting summer, after a spate of protests at high-level events in the country.
REUTERS, AFP