Marta Kostyuk has one of the most dynamic games on tour. She has a good serve, forehand and volleys. Her base game is almost immaculate, with minimal weaknesses and, on paper, she seems to have all the attributes required to become a top-10 player. She attacks and defends very well, and has demonstrated increasingly impressive court craft too.
Her movement and footwork are also excellent — with the Ukrainian one of, if not the best, movers/retrievers on tour. She started the year ranked 41, now she’s ranked #19. She is more mature and stable than she used to be. So what’s stopping her from taking the next step?
While ‘dynamic’ is a good description of her game she doesn’t currently have the kind of weight of shot on either wing — but particularly the forehand – to be a truly elite player. In essence, she doesn’t have the kind of power to end the points exactly when she wants and that leads to longer rallies than ideal: longer games; longer matches. It’s at the end of these long exchanges that her concentration and intensity begin to flag, then disappear.
Can Marta Kostyuk reach the top ten?
Mental Strength and Second Serve
Her mental strength and consistency are her biggest weaknesses although she is improving on them she may need to hire a mental coach to work alongside Sandra Zaniewska who has done a fantastic job with her so far but maybe doesn’t have the skills to take Kostyuk to the next level in her head. She seems to lose her focus too easily and often and makes so many errors for someone who isn’t the biggest hitter. Kostyuk is one of the worst players on tour when it comes to focus and concentration. Her form is a rollercoaster ride from game to game.
Kostyuk needs to improve her second serve and reduce the number of double faults she is hitting. She has averaged close to seven double faults in her last 15 matches and six double faults in her last five losses. At the highest-level, that simply won’t cut it.
Shot Selection and Technical challenges
Tactically, Kostyuk suffers from a kind of option paralysis a lot of the time. She’s a super-talented player and good at a lot of things but doesn’t consistently make the right choices during matches which can lead to a load of errors. Reasonably often, her entire gameplan against an opponent seems to be all wrong in terms of how aggressive she is trying to be and the risks she’s taking.
Her issues are mostly mental, but her game as a whole is not as effective as those of Iga Swiatek, recent US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff and Zheng Qinwen. These five are in a league of their own, extremely solid, and while they can have random losses here and there, their base level is usually enough to grant them good results and if they are peaking then they are extremely hard to beat.
Then there are random peaking players like Krejcikova and Ostapenko and the occasional ones who have an outstanding year out of nowhere like Paolini. Kostyuk’s chances would be more a Pegula type of career to reach the “top 10” but the American is mentally tougher and more mature.
The Silver Lining
It’s important to remember that Kostyuk is still very young and has time on her hands to improve. If she stays healthy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her game click more cohesively at some point and for her to have a top-10 period if she also improves her second serve. It might take a little more time to get there but she is on the right path and having her best year on tour.
Main photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
