{"id":641602,"date":"2026-04-30T23:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641602\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:58:08","slug":"tennis-wta-mutua-madrid-open-2026-kostyuk-downs-potapova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641602\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, WTA \u2013 Mutua Madrid Open 2026: Kostyuk downs Potapova"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marta Kostyuk, the No 26 seed, reached the final of the Mutua Madrid Open by beating Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 on Thursday night \u2014 a strange, lopsided match in three one-sided sets that was as notable for what happened in the stands as on the court.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk was dominant in the first set and the last, winning them with a combined scoreline of 12-3. The second set belonged entirely to Potapova, who won it 6-1 with the kind of aggressive tennis that had carried her through the week. Then she lost the thread \u2014 and the microphones caught why.<\/p>\n

During the third set, her boyfriend and Dutch world No 25 Tallon Griekspoor, who had helped her through the Pliskova <\/a>quarter-final two days earlier, could be heard from the players\u2019 box. \u201cKeep pushing. You\u2019re right there,\u201d he said at one point. Potapova\u2019s reply: \u201cDo you see the scoreboard?\u201d It was 2-0. Sooner, at a more critical moment: \u201cYou need to believe in yourself.\u201d Potapova: \u201cI do.\u201d Griekspoor: \u201cYou don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

No handshake<\/p>\n

Kostyuk won the third set 6-1.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk confirmed ahead of the semi-final that she would not shake hands with Potapova at the net, despite the latter having switched her nationality from Russia to Austria in December. \u201cThe only person I shake hands with is Daria Kasatkina,\u201d Kostyuk said, \u201cbecause not only did she change her passport, she also openly said she does not support the war.\u201d There was no handshake.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk faces Mirra Andreeva in Saturday\u2019s final \u2013 a 19-year-old Russian who beat Hailey Baptiste in Thursday\u2019s first semi-final. Their most recent meeting was here in Madrid last year, where Kostyuk won 6-3, 6-2. The head-to-head stands at 1-1. Saturday\u2019s final is scheduled for the afternoon session on Manolo Santana Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marta Kostyuk, the No 26 seed, reached the final of the Mutua Madrid Open by beating Anastasia Potapova…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-641602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}