Marta Kostyuk says Ukrainians were checking her scores while missiles were flying in Kyiv: "It's still there, still not gone"

Marta Kostyuk bowed out of the 2024 Australian Open with a 6-7, 7-6, 2-6 defeat to Coco Gauff in the Quarter-Finals in a career best run so far for the rising Ukrainian with her opponent continuing a likely collision course as of time of writing with Aryna Sabalenka.

But Kostyuk who has been open about the harrowing nature of the situation back in Ukraine and also her dismay at the reporting of the war with Russia including using flags of those players on the US Open account during her win over Maria Timofeeva spoke about how it has gone down back home. The 21-year-old said that people have texted her that they have been checking her scores while the missiles have been coming down and that most of her family are still in Ukraine.

Despite that though with Dayana Yastremska through and will play her Quarter-Final tonight, the media narrative has shifted back to the war which she is pleased about with the notion that it has been forgotten at times in recent months.

"I think girls did really well," Kostyuk said. "I hope, you know, we will be able to succeed on most of the tournaments, especially the big ones where there is a lot of media."
"I think people should be reminded," she said. "I walk off the court -- before the match I was looking at the news and I kind of guess that most likely there would be a big missile shelling again. When I walked off the court, I look at this news again, and again, I don't know how many missiles yet."
"I was texting with some people from Kyiv. I said, How is it? How are you guys? They said, Well, we were looking between your score and where the missiles are flying," Kostyuk added.
"So it's still there. It's still there. My parents are still there... My sister is still there, Yeah, it's still there, you know. Still not gone."