"90% my tiredness played a role today" - Marta Kostyuk blames exhausting schedule for final loss to Elena Rybakina at Porsche Tennis Grand Prix

Marta Kostyuk fell against Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-2 in the women's singles final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2024 on Sunday, April 21.

Kostyuk was under the pump straightaway as Rybakina broke her in the opening game of the first set. She resisted decently for the next five games but lost her serve again in the seventh game and Rybakina then held her own to secure the opening set in just 31 minutes.

The following set unfolded in exact same fashion as Rybakina broke the Ukrainian in the first and seventh games to secure the championship. It was Kostyuk's second career loss to Rybakina as the latter took a 2-1 lead in the head-to-head.

Kostyuk notably worked harder than Rybakina to reach the summit clash as she didn't receive a bye in the first round like the champion. Moreover, she had to overcome three top-10 players including Coco Gauff, Zheng Qinwen, and Marketa Vondrousova, before the final whereas the Kazakhstani's only top-10 opponent was Iga Swiatek.

Therefore, Marta Kostyuk blamed her poor showing against Rybakina on her exhausting schedule in Stuttgart.

"I think 90% my tiredness played a role today. Every morning I didn't know what to expect from myself on the court today, because really me being able to pull off this whole week and play an amazing tennis yesterday was something incredible and something I would never expect I can do," Kostyuk told the media in her post-match press conference.

Kostyuk missed out on the championship prize money and keys to the Porsche Taycan 4S Turismo but bagged €76,225 as the runner-up and 325 ranking points, which will propel her to a career-high ranking of World No. 21.

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Marta Kostyuk: "I really couldn't produce pretty much anything today"

Marta Kostyuk (L) shakes hands with Elena Rybakina

Further, during the same press conference at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2024, Marta Kostyuk admitted to feeling nervous against Elena Rybakina.

"Today, I was very nervous. I wanted to win a lot this one, and yeah, I think there were a lot of things together. Yeah, I just couldn't probably bear it anymore," Kostyuk said.

The 21-year-old accepted not being able to provide enough resistance, saying:

"When I was on court, it was one point after another, game after game. I really couldn't produce pretty much anything today."

Marta Kostyuk's account could be more understood with her numbers for the Sunday final as she converted only 56 percent of the points on her first serve whereas Elena Rybakina maintained an 81 percent conversion rate. Also, she created three break points but wasted them all.