---
title: "Marta Kostyuk's Historic Leap: Ukrainian Reaches Wimbledon Semifinal for the First Time in Her Career"
description: "Marta Kostyuk made a breakthrough at Wimbledon 2026! 🇺🇦🎾 In the quarterfinals, the Ukrainian crushed Jasmine Paolini and reached the semifinal of a major for the first time in her career. The next match is on July 9 against the winner of the Noskova/Mertens pair."
date: 2026-07-08T13:56:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/marta-kostyuk-reaches-wimbledon-2026-semifinal-en
tags: []
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Marta Kostyuk's Historic Leap: Ukrainian Reaches Wimbledon Semifinal for the First Time in Her Career

![Marta Kostyuk in a green sports outfit during a match at Wimbledon, holding a racket and ready to hit the ball](https://xab.info/media/2026/07/09/marta-kostiuk-v-polufinale-uimbldona-2026/marta-kostiuk-v-polufinale-uimbldona-2026-1.webp)

On the grass courts of Wimbledon 2026, an event took place that will go down in the history of Ukrainian tennis. The 23-year-old Marta Kostyuk, displaying tennis of the highest class, reached the semifinals of the year's most prestigious tournament for the first time in her career. In the quarterfinals, the Kyiv native proved stronger than Italian Jasmine Paolini in two sets.

### Victory over the head-to-head favorite

On the eve of the match, the statistics were not on the side of the Ukrainian. Jasmine Paolini, who is the 2024 Wimbledon runner-up, led the head-to-head record with a score of 2:1. Kostyuk's only victory over her opponent was achieved back in 2022 at the tournament in Cincinnati. However, on the London courts, Marta completely turned the tables.

The match was played at a fast pace: it took the Ukrainian only 1 hour and 10 minutes to secure the historic victory. The start of the first set looked even — the opponents exchanged games until the score was 2:2. But then Kostyuk switched to higher gears, made a powerful surge, and confidently took the first set with a score of 6:3.

### Dominance in the second set

In the second set, the Italian tried to force a fight, but at a score of 1:1, the initiative finally passed to the Ukrainian. Kostyuk confidently led 4:1. Despite Paolini's attempts to hang on and take one game, the Ukrainian closed the set without problems with a score of 6:2.

This success became Marta's fifth WTA semifinal in the 2026 season. Earlier, she reached this stage in Brisbane (WTA 500) and at Roland Garros, where she lost to Mirra Andreeva. Also in the current season, Marta won titles in Rouen (WTA 250) and Madrid (WTA 1000).

### The road to the semifinal and the next opponent

On her way to this historic success on the courts of Great Britain, Kostyuk successively defeated Nadia Podoroska, Anna Blinkova, Emma Navarro, and Ashlyn Krueger.

The Ukrainian's next opponent in the Wimbledon 2026 semifinal will be the winner of the match between Linda Noskova (Czech Republic) and Elise Mertens (Belgium). The semifinal match is scheduled for Thursday, July 9. The tennis players will go on court no earlier than 15:00 Kyiv time.