Fifteen-year-old Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine has became the youngest player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament since Mirjana Lucic-Baroni’s run at the 1997 US Open after defeating Australia’s Olivia Rogowska 6-3 7-5.
Former Australian junior champion Marta Kostyuk, who entered the season-opening major ranked No. 521, followed up her opening win over 25th-seeded Peng Shuai with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Australian wild-card entry Olivia Rogowska.
The 15-year-old qualifier and the No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina were among three Ukrainian women who had matches starting simultaneously Wednesday and all progressed to the third round of the Australian Open.
Kostyuk already is the youngest player since Martina Hingis in 1996 to win a main-draw match at the year’s opening major. And that came after three three-set matches in qualifying over six hours.
Kostyuk is managed by Ivan Ljubicic, who works with Roger Federer, getting the benefit of some first-rate analysis.
I’m happy, just happy – I made it through. I beat some records or repeat them every year, so I feel okay. Ivan is always helping me when he sees me. After every match he’s telling me what was wrong. Not everything is right even when I win.Marta Kostyuk
Kostyuk's progress is set to become more difficult, with a meeting against Svitolina in the next round.
While Kostyuk was playing on Margaret Court Arena, Svitolina, who won a tour-leading five titles in 2017, had a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Katerina Siniakova on the adjoining Rod Laver Arena.
Their fellow Ukrainian, Kateryna Bondarenko, beat No. 15-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 in the day's opening match on Melbourne Park's third show court to reach the third round in the Australian Open for the third time.
On the men's side, No10 Pablo Carreno Busta was leading 6-2, 3-0 when Gilles Simon retired from their second-round match.
Andreas Seppi beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
(With inputs from AP.)
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