Marta Kostyuk is a woman of her word.
The Ukrainian had said she would bring back her famous celebratory backflip if she clinched the Mutua Madrid Open title on Saturday and indeed she did, treating the Caja Magica crowd to a perfectly-executed acrobatic move that would have earned her straight 10s had there been judges on the sidelines.
Kostyuk’s backflip is a signature move the world first got to witness when she broke through on the professional circuit as a 15-year-old, storming to the Australian Open third round as a qualifier back in 2018.
She was ranked 521 in the world at the time and had earned a qualifying wildcard as the Australian Open junior champion from the previous year.
Her exploits in Melbourne made her the first player born in 2002 to feature in a Grand Slam main draw, and the youngest to reach the Australian Open third round in women’s singles since Martina Hingis in 1996.
It was a tournament that thrust a 15-year-old Kostyuk into the spotlight and her early breakthrough came with a lot of pressure, some of which she admittedly didn’t always find easy to navigate.
She felt like she abandoned her childhood too early, and often spoke like she was an old soul, from a very young age.
In a conversation with Sport360 when she was making her Madrid debut in 2018, Kostyuk spoke about why she spoke with maturity beyond her years.
“From adult life, I think,” she said. “I’ve been through a lot of things in my life and I obviously don’t have a teenager’s life at all, zero per cent. I cannot even let myself be a teenager because it will affect me, it will affect my tennis. It’s tough, but it is the way it is.”
With years of experience behind her, Kostyuk began to realise that managing pressure was all about perspective and at 23, she is able to embrace the highs and lows of the life she has chosen and is playing the tennis of her life.
“I’ve always worked until I was exhausted,” Kostyuk told Vogue Ukraine last fall.
“But now I’ve realised that it won’t work that way. Our careers are quite short, so you need to live it with excitement, enjoy it, and not suffer and wait for it to end. I like how I’m playing now, what mood I’m in and how I enjoy my work.”
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The key for her has been accepting all emotions, the good and the bad. “It’s a cool process of life. For me, the most valuable thing is to watch myself change, grow and develop,” she added.
After beating Mirra Andreeva in the Madrid final on Saturday, Kostyuk reflected on her journey from teen phenom to where she is right now: the new world No.15 come Monday.
“I think in the beginning of this year I told my team that I finally feel that the achievements that I had when I was 15 years old are not, how do you call it? It doesn’t have a weight on me anymore,” said the Ukrainian.
“Because I was living for many years in that state of everyone expecting big results from me. Like, almost winning, having such good results being so young was almost like a curse.
“I think when I freed myself from that actually it’s incredible. I’m very proud of myself that I managed to achieve all of that when I was 14 and 15 years old. It definitely gave me just the freedom to enjoy this sport and just play it.”
Kostyuk started playing tennis at five years old as a way to spend more time with her mother, Talina Beiko, a former professional tennis player who later became a coach, and more specifically Kostyuk’s coach.
Beiko has had a huge influence on Kostyuk, who told tennis.com in 2021 that conversations with her mother before her 18th birthday helped her get back on track after a roller coaster three years on tour.
“I never get tired of saying what an unbelievable woman she is, with the life she’s had and has, she’s an amazing fighter and one of the strongest people I know,” Kostyuk said of her mother, who is no longer her coach.
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Kostyuk hired Sandra Zaniewska as her coach in 2023, the same year she got married to Heorhii Kyzymenko.
After kicking off her 2026 campaign with a run to the Brisbane final, Kostyuk suffered early exits in the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.
She says she wasn’t discouraged though because she felt her draws during the Sunshine Swing were particularly tough (she lost to Elena Rybakina in the third round in both Indian Wells and Miami).
Then came the switch to clay, which sparked a monster run from Kostyuk.
After helping Ukraine pull off a sweep against Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers on the red dirt in Gliwice, Kostyuk went to Rouen, France to officially kick off her clay-court campaign.
She marched to the title, battling through three-setters in the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, to secure her first WTA trophy since 2023.
Five days later Kostyuk stepped on court at the Caja Magica for her Madrid opener and she picked up right where she left off, capturing six more victories to extend her winning streak to 12.
In the process, she became a WTA 1000 champion for the first time, and added two more top-10 wins to her resume, taking her tally against such opposition to 14 (overall she is 5-3 against top-10 players in 2026).
Beyond the numbers, Kostyuk has been playing great. She’s been utilising her aggressive baseline game to maximum effect and has been attacking her opponent’s second serve, gaining the upper hand in the majority of her second-serve return points.
With a clear identity on court and a trusted coach like Zaniewska in her corner, Kostyuk is finally reaping the rewards of all her hard work.
“It’s an incredibly long journey, especially with the road that I took. I was growing up being coached by my mom. It’s never easy to go out of this relationship and to be able to do that, having my mom as the closest person in my life,” she said on Saturday.
“I always call her when I need support or when I just want to talk to her. I actually had a short training camp with her before the clay court season, so I definitely should thank her for all the wins that I’ve had in the past month.
“I know a lot of difficult stories when parents are coaching their kids. But I’m happy I got out on the other side better, a better person, better player. It definitely took a lot of struggling and a lot of difficult moments.
“For me, almost nothing changes. I’m a Masters champion right now, but I want to just keep doing the same thing and keep working and keep enjoying this journey. It’s about the journey, it’s not about the destination.”
It’s a statement we hear from many athletes but coming from Kostyuk, you can tell these are words she’s been truly living by.
