On Monday, January 16, the 1/64 final match of the Australian Open 2023 between Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine, WTA 57) and Amanda Anisimova (USA, WTA 29) will take place. The fight will take place on court number 7 with the first launch. Approximate start of the match – 02:00 Kyiv time.
Marta Kostyuk
Kostyuk is the champion of the junior tournament of the Grand Slam Australian Open 2017 series. At the adult level, Marta’s best result at the AO is the third round. The Ukrainian has no trophies at the WTA level, but has three ITF titles. Kostyuk started the new season of 2023 quite well. Marta qualified for the first tournament of the WTA 500 series in Adelaide, and at the base she beat local tennis player Jamie Forlis and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan. In the quarter-finals of the competition, the Ukrainian played worthily with the second racket of the world, Ons Jaber, losing 6:7 (5:7), 5:7. Martha then played in the first round of qualifying for a second such tournament in Adelaide, but lost to Shelby Rodgers in straight sets. In the last match, Marta didn’t do much, the fatigue and the desire to approach AO in good physical shape affected. In the off-season, Kostyuk did a good job on the first serve and her main weapon, the forehand. For all 6 matches in the new season, Kostyuk won 60%+ points on the first ball.
Amanda Anisimova
Twitter. Amanda Anisimova
Anisimova has Russian roots – her parents are from Russia, but Amanda herself was born in the United States. The highest position of an American is the 21st line in the WTA rankings. Amanda has 2 WTA titles and one trophy in ITF tournaments. Her best career AO result is the 4th round in 2019 and 2022, and at the Grand Slam tournaments, the semi-finals of Roland Garros in 2019. Anisimova is also a former World No. 2 in juniors and won the US Open in 2017. In the new season, the 21-year-old American has not the most stable results – 3 losses and 2 wins. Amanda has an American school of tennis, she has been training on hard since childhood. The weak link for Amanda, as in principle for many representatives of the Women’s Tour, is the second serve.
Personal meetings
Tennis players met each other in 2019 in the qualification for the clay tournament of the WTA 1000 series in Madrid. Then Marta won in three sets with a score of 6:0, 2:6, 6:0 in 1 hour and 11 minutes. At the junior level, the girls did not meet.
Forecast
Martha began to go to the net more often and try to crush her opponents. The Ukrainian has clearly improved her game at the net, and this is yielding results. Even Ons Zhaber was only able to break through Kostyuk near the cable a couple of times. Against the less experienced Anisimova, this might work. Martha’s character was always not to be occupied, however, it is important to enter the game on time and not give up in a difficult segment of the game, but on the contrary, try something new and surprise the opponent. We believe that Kostyuk still has more chances to win the match – Kostyuk wins with odds of 1.98
