Marta
Kostyuk dominated
Danielle Collins in the semifinals of the WTA 250
ATX Open Austin and will play against Varvara Gracheva in the final.
The
Ukrainian was superior to Collins throughout the match and showed a better
serve than in the rest of the tournament, as the American only managed to break
once out of six opportunities. In the first set, both players had a good serve
and only one break from Kostyuk gave her the advantage to take the first set.
Although
the American showed resistance in the second set, she was never able to be
superior to the 20-year-old player who took advantage of her opportunities to
overcome the former 2022 Australian Open finalist. World No. 38 Collins had not
found her level in the tournaments she played after the Australian Open until
this week at the ATX Open, where she entered as the 4th seed, and achieved
victories against Magdalena Frech, Cathy McNally, and Anna Kalinskaya.
Marta
Kostyuk reached the first final of her career with a score of 6-4, 6-3 over the
former top-10 player.
The second
semifinal match was between two young players: 22-year-old Russian Varvara
Gracheva and 21-year-old American Katye Volynets.
In the
first set, neither of the players had a good serve, but Gracheva managed to
prevail 6-4 in a set that had a total of seven breaks. The American only won
39% of her first serve, which helped her opponent to put pressure on her in
every service game.
In the
second set, Volynets was ahead 5-4 and with the serve in her favor to tie the
match, but Gracheva managed to get a break to extend the match. The North
American maintained her focus and broke her opponent's serve again to
ultimately win the set 7-5. In the final set, the tennis players were more
precise with their serves, and although the North American took the lead with
the first break, her opponent was better under pressure and won the last 4
games, achieving the victory by 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Kostyuk and
Gracheva will fight this Sunday to get their first WTA level trophy.