Ukrainian Women Shine Down Under

Ukraine’s women tennis stars had a tournament to remember at the Australian Open as three made the third round in this year’s first Grand Slam event. The trio was led by Elina Svitolina. Ranked fourth going into the tournament, Ukraine’s top tennis star disappointingly crashed out at the quarterfinal stage by losing 6-4, 6-0 to Belgium’s unseeded Elise Mertens. The surprise of the tournament however was Ukraine’s 15-year-old Marta Kostyuk, who fell to Svitolina in the third round. She became the youngest woman to make the third round of a Grand Slam since Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic in 1997. Kyiv’s Katerina Bondarenko joined the pair in the third round, where she cost to Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in three sets. With her quarterfinal finish, Svitolina is now ranked No. 3 in the world. The three ladies will undoubtedly have more news to share following the Fed Cup tie with Australia on 10-11 February, just as we go to print.