{"id":662621,"date":"2026-05-24T17:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662621\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T17:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:17:09","slug":"tearful-kostyuk-reaches-french-open-2nd-round-and-speaks-of-missile-attack-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662621\/","title":{"rendered":"Tearful Kostyuk reaches French Open 2nd round and speaks of missile attack in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Marta Kostyuk\u2019s first-round win at the French Open<\/a> became one of her toughest matches after she found out beforehand that a missile almost hit her parents\u2019 home in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk<\/a> fought back tears after beating Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-2, 6-3 on Court Simonne-Mathieu on the opening day of the clay-court Grand Slam<\/a> at Roland Garros in western Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was one of the most difficult matches of my career,\u201d the 15th-seeded Kostyuk said. \u201cThis morning, 100 meters away from my parents\u2019 house, the missile destroyed the building and it was a very difficult morning for me … I didn\u2019t know how I would handle it, I\u2019ve been crying part of the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

She received a message at 8 a.m. and could not stop thinking what could have happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt sick,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it was 100 meters closer, I probably wouldn\u2019t have a mom and a sister today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother, sister and great aunt \u2014 were in the house at the time of the strike, she said, among 17 people in total, so her relief was enormous that no one was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to think what I would do if something worse happened, but I knew that this is the day to go out and play,\u201d she said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t cross my mind today that I shouldn\u2019t go out, because, you know, at the end of the day, everyone is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the match, she thanked fans and received an ovation. Then she explained how she found the emotional and mental resources to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to keep going. My biggest example is Ukrainian people, I woke up in the morning today and,\u201d the 23-year-old Kostyuk said, becoming tearful before repeating and finishing the sentence. <\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at all these people who woke up and kept living their life, kept helping people who are in need,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew a lot of Ukrainian flags would be here today and a lot of Ukrainian people would come out, support. My friends from Ukraine came as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kostyuk first served for the match at 5-1 she got broken. But she served it out on her next opportunity and waved to fans holding up a Ukraine flag in the upper deck.<\/p>\n

She next plays unseeded American Katie Volynets and Kostyuk\u2019s countrywoman Elina Svitolina \u2014 a recent winner at the Italian Open in Rome<\/a> \u2014 faces Anna Bondar on Monday.<\/p>\n

The heat is on<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s opening day saw players coping with high temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius (91 Fahrenheit) \u2014 with the intense heat contributing to Frenchman Arthur Gea taking an emergency bathroom break<\/a> early into his first-round loss to No. 13 Karen Khachanov on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.<\/p>\n

Spectators folded newspapers in half and fanned themselves to keep cool as players on court attempted to stay hydrated.<\/p>\n

The opening match on Court Philippe-Chatrier saw No. 11 Belinda Bencic beating Sinja Kraus 6-2, 6-3 and 2024 runner-up Alexander Zverev followed with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win against Benjamin Bonzi. The second-seeded German plays unseeded Tomas Machac next.<\/p>\n

The night match on Chatrier features three-time champion Novak Djokovic against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.<\/p>\n

Two days after his 39th birthday, Djokovic will play a men\u2019s record 82nd Grand Slam tournament<\/a> \u2014 one more than Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf in Paris contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Marta Kostyuk\u2019s first-round win at the French Open became one of her toughest matches after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[12082,9971,201746,40311,71863,42962,20125,4039,4038,109700,2465,135218,74010,433,199424,593,4037,9983,99,428,97225,1208],"class_list":["post-662621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-anna-bondar","tag-arthur-gea","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-benjamin-bonzi","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-feliciano-lopez","tag-french-open","tag-french-open-tennis-championships","tag-giovanni-mpetshi-perricard","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-katie-volynets","tag-marta-kostyuk","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-oksana-selekhmeteva","tag-paris","tag-roger-federer","tag-sinja-kraus","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tomas-machac","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}