Ukrainian qualifier Marta Kostyuk powered past Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to advance to the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International 1, coming back from a set down to win 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the quarterfinals.
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Starting her season ranked No.69, Kostyuk enjoyed a successful qualifying campaign in Adelaide, posting straight-set wins over Cristina Bucsa and Mayar Sherif. Having spent over two hours on court to defeat Australian wildcard Jaimee Fourlis in the first round, Kostyuk's comfort on the courts at The Drive was evident.
"Honestly, not the outcome I was preparing myself for today," Kostyuk said. "Elena is a very good player and she's been on tour for a couple of years. We played Australian Open junior semifinals against each other. I was fighting every point. It could have gone either way."
Kostyuk was broken just once in the match and finished with more winners than Rybakina, hitting 36 to just 16 unforced errors over the 2-hour and 21-minute match. No.21 Rybakina, who earned a strong comeback win over Danielle Collins in the first round, was broken four times and hit 25 winners to 18 unforced errors.
Neither player could manage a break of serve in the opening set but after edging out Kostyuk in the tiebreak, Rybakina's serve took a dip. Rybakina served at just 33% in the second set and 55% in the third. After winning 62% of her second-serve points in the first set, Rybakina's won just 33% in the second set and 46% in the third.
Into her biggest quarterfinal since 2021 Abu Dhabi, Kostyuk will face either top seed Ons Jabeur or Sorana Cirstea on Friday.
The last match of the day saw No.9 Veronika Kudermetova rally from 0-4 down to win 12 straight games against Bianca Andreescu. Playing her first match of the season, Kudermetova defeated the Canadian 6-4, 6-0, and will face either Jelena Ostapenko or Irina Camelia Begu in the quarterfinals.
"I'm so happy about my performance today," Kudermetova said. "Twelve games in a row is something incredible. When I was 0-4 I said to myself, 'I accept that I cannot play very well every day.' I just tried to fight and that's it."
