"Emma no offense, but Leylah was fighting for her life every single match": Marta Kostyuk cites Raducanu US Open run as luck of the draw

Using Emma Raducanu's US Open run as an example, Marta Kostyuk believes that luck of the draw is a huge factor in Grand Slams after Coco Gauff previously said similar about not having to play lights-out tennis for seven straight matches.

Kostyuk took down Maria Timofeeva 6-1, 6-2 to reach her maiden Grand Slam Quarter-Final and has had a section herself where the draw has opened up for her and she has been able to navigate fairly comfortably with Elina Avanesyan in the last round seeing off Maria Sakkari and Beatriz Haddad Maia falling to Timofeeva who was the other seed in the section.

But citing the Raducanu example, the Brit in her 2021 run only had to face Belinda Bencic and Maria Sakkari in winning through seed wise while Leylah Fernandez had to take on Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina in winning through before running out of steam against Raducanu and Kostyuk admits that all runs are different including hers and that the easiest example is the 2021 edition at Flushing Meadows of how that is in evidence.

"Every slam and every tournament is so unique and so different. We play in different conditions, different balls, different. Everything is different, opponents. Everything is different. I think a lot depends. Someone can have a very easy draw, and someone can have extremely difficult," she said.
"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 life every single match," she added.