AAP Tennis

Kostyuk, Gracheva in clash of first-time WTA finalists

By AAP Newswire

Mar 5, 2023

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk and Russian Varvara Gracheva have each reached their first WTA final by beating an American at the ATX Open in Austin, Texas.

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Eighth-seeded Kostyuk took five of the last six games to eliminate 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins 6-4 6-3 in Saturday's first semi-final.

Gracheva then reeled off the last four games to defeat Katie Volynets 6-4 5-7 6-4 across nearly 2 1/2 hours in a matchup between a pair of unseeded players at night.

The 20-year-old Kostyuk is ranked 52nd. Gracheva is a 22-year-old ranked 88th. One will earn a tour-level trophy for the first time on Sunday at the inaugural edition of the hard-court tournament in the Texas capital.

Kostyuk previously had reached the semi-finals at four tournaments but never made it further.

Collins was trying to reach her first tour title match since getting that far at Melbourne Park last season before losing to Ash Barty.

Gracheva, never past the third round at a grand slam tournament, has won three of her four matches this week in three sets.

She had made it as far as the semi-finals at a WTA event just once before. But after falling behind 4-2 in the final set against Volynets, a 21-year-old from California, Gracheva did not lose another game.