<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Mirra Andreeva reacts in the course of the quarterfinal tennis match against Romania\u2019s Sorana Cirstea on the French Open in Paris, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
PARIS\u00a0 \u2014 Marta Kostyuk, one of the best player on clay this season and a vocal supporter of Ukraine amid the <\/span>war with Russia<\/span>, will play her first major <\/span>semifinal on the <\/span>French Open<\/span> against a Russian.<\/span><\/p>\n Kostyuk won an intense all-Ukraine quarterfinal against Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 on Tuesday. That arrange Kostyuk against Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, who thumped Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3.<\/span><\/p>\n In men\u2019s play, 20-year-old Jakub Mensik ended the run of <\/span>Brazil\u2019s Joao Fonseca<\/span> with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was one among my best performances to this point,\u201d Mensik said.<\/span><\/p>\n The 19-year-old <\/span>Fonseca beat 24-time Grand Slam champion No<\/span>vak Djokovic<\/span> in five sets within the third round after which eliminated two-time runner-up Casper Ruud within the fourth round.<\/span><\/p>\n Mensik collapsed to the clay with cramps upon edging Mariano Navone in a fifth-set tiebreaker within the second round and in addition needed five sets to advance within the fourth round against Andrey Rublev.<\/span><\/p>\n For a spot in Sunday\u2019s final, Mensik will face second-seeded Alexander Zverev, the 2024 runner-up, who beat rising Spanish player Rafael Jodar 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3.<\/span><\/p>\n Kostyuk leads Andreeva 2-0 on the tour; the second win within the Madrid final a month ago. Kostyuk didn\u2019t shake hands at the online, following protocol for Ukrainians with opponents from Russia and its ally Belarus because the war began 4 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe had a really difficult night again in Ukraine, especially in Kyiv, so many individuals dead,\u201d Kostyuk said. \u201cI need to offer this match to Ukrainian people and to their resilience. Slava Ukraini! (Glory to Ukraine!)\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Russia launched a whole lot of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing not less than 18 civilians and wounding greater than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI texted my family in the event that they were OK. That is just about all I can<\/span><\/p>\n do,\u201d Kostyuk said. \u201cThe largest thing I can do is sit here and speak about it so more people can discover about it so that they don\u2019t get used to this terrible life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Svitolina said friends in Ukraine told her concerning the attacks just hours before the match.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJust very sad that all of us have to essentially put up with this heaviness and pain each day, and scared moments not knowing what\u2019s going to bring the following day,\u201d Svitolina said.<\/span><\/p>\n She is going to leave Roland Garros to take care of the daughter she has with French tennis player <\/span>Gael Monfils<\/span>, but will likely be cheering on Kostyuk.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHopefully she will be able to get the title,\u201d Svitolina said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be massive for Ukraine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n No. 7-seeded Svitolina got off to a slow start but worked her way back, matching No. 15 Kostyuk\u2019s power from the baseline. Kostyuk was higher on the small print within the decider and improved her impressive 2026 record on clay to 17-0.<\/span><\/p>\n She\u2019s the primary Ukrainian woman to succeed in the semifinals at Roland Garros within the Open era since 1968. Svitolina has reached the semis at the opposite three Grand Slams but failed for the sixth time to win a French Open quarterfinal.<\/span><\/p>\n Andreeva will appear in her second French Open semifinal, two years after the primary. She was asked concerning the challenges of playing a Ukrainian in wartime.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, for me it doesn\u2019t matter who I play,\u201d Andreeva said. \u201cI actually attempt to play against the ball that’s coming at me. Normally it doesn\u2019t matter to me who I\u2019m playing against, so I\u2019m trying to essentially concentrate on the sport and on the sport plan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Asked whether she found it frustrating to listen to Russian opponents avoiding the difficulty, Kostyuk said she wished \u201cthere was some more clear stance on what\u2019s occurring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEspecially when your country is killing other people,\u201d she added. \u201cI don\u2019t understand how you’ll be able to sleep at night peacefully when you already know that this is occurring, and you’ve nothing to say about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After per week of hot weather, rain arrived in Paris and play began and finished under the closed roof of Court Philippe-Chatrier. Competing within the quarterfinals for the primary time in 17 years, Cirstea struggled to search out her rhythm against her 19-year-old rival.<\/span><\/p>\n The 36-year-old veteran, playing the ultimate season of her profession, immediately dropped her serve. She didn\u2019t hold serve or win a game until the primary game of the second set. Andreeva\u2019s deep, accurate groundstrokes and charges to the online took a toll on 18th-seeded Cirstea, whose try to come back was shortlived.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI felt prefer it was one among my best matches to this point this tournament,\u201d Andreeva said. \u201cSuper blissful to be back in semis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russia\u2019s Mirra Andreeva reacts in the course of the quarterfinal tennis match against Romania\u2019s Sorana Cirstea on the French Open in Paris, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo) PARIS\u00a0 \u2014 Marta Kostyuk, one of the best player on clay this season and a vocal supporter of Ukraine amid the war with Russia, will play her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[50771,1128,728,52435,1574,19004,1083],"class_list":["post-344935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-andreeva","tag-clash","tag-french","tag-kostyuk","tag-open","tag-russiaukraine","tag-set"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344938,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344935\/revisions\/344938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}