Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk said making the Australian Open fourth round Friday “doesn’t really matter” when her country is in “survival mode’ and missiles are flying over her family home.
The 21-year-old beat Russian Elina Avanesyan in three sets in Melbourne to equal her best Grand Slam singles showing, refusing to shake her hand afterwards.
“The war is still there. People are still dying every day. I still don’t understand what all these players are doing here. Nothing really changed in my world,” she said.
Kostyuk, whose previous best effort at a major was reaching the last 16 at the French Open in 2021, accused people of forgetting about the conflict because they had got “used to it”.
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