Marta Kostyuk continued her run of pitch-perfect tennis on the red clay of Madrid on Thursday with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 victory over Anastasia Potapova. The Ukrainian is into her biggest career final to face 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva for the title on Saturday.
Kostyuk, who won the title in Rouen just under two weeks ago, has not lost on clay this season, and she’s on her longest career winning streak as well.
She returned aggressively throughout the contest and managed six breaks of serve against Potapova, including three breaks in a dominant third set as she rebounded from a shaky second set – her first losing set of the tournament.
“It’s unbelievable, honestly, I think second set was really weird today,” Kostyuk said. “I haven’t dropped a set all week, so to lose this, it felt kind of weird, but I’m very proud with how I managed to just keep supporting myself. I wasn’t playing the way I always play today, but I felt like this was the key.”
Kostyuk has defeated No.5 seed Jessica Pegula, No. 13 seed Linda Noskova along the way in Madrid to improve to 16-4 on the season and reach her third final (also Brisbane and Rouen).
Kostyuk is 1-0 lifetime against Andreeva, having defeated her in straight sets in the quarterfinal in Brisbane earlier this year.