Australian Open 2025: 25 favorites to watch out for | No. 22, Women's Singles

Marta Kostyuk has built a reputation as a bit of an upset artist, as seen at this year's Australian Open. She will, however, be looking to grow out of it.

Having beaten a couple of higher-ranked opponents, the Ukrainian had Coco Gauff on the ropes in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open before the American survived in a three-set thriller. That has been the pattern sadly for the big-hitter.

Every now and then, Kostyuk shows flashes of brilliance only for her runs to end in near-misses like the one against Gauff. A period of lull follows until she catches lightning once again.

That did change slightly in 2024, with the Ukrainian posting results with a little more consistency. As a reward, she has ended the season inside the top -20. The 34-20 win-loss included two WTA 500 finals (on different surfaces, including the hardcourts of San Diego and the claycourts of Stuttgart) besides the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Heading into the new season, she will be seeded at Grand Slams, at least for the foreseeable future. In fact, she is only two withdrawals away from being among the top 16 seeds at the Australian Open, ensuring a favorable draw all the way into the second week (the fourth round).

Kostyuk, who often ran into big names early at Grand Slams, can and should use those early matches to build some momentum for the bigger challenges that await deeper in the draw.

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Marta Kostyuk’s Australian Open juniors connection

Marta Kostyuk with the Australian Open 2017 Junior Championships trophy. (Source: Getty)

Marta Kostyuk was a very promising junior, peaking at No. 2 in the Girls’ singles ranking. Her biggest result, in fact, came at the Australian Open when she lifted the singles trophy in 2017.

Even as a junior, she liked to take big swings at the ball. Her raw power has only been refined after spending years on the Tour and the groundstrokes, when she is connecting them well, are as precise as they are powerful. That combination makes her a nightmare to play against on the quick hardcourts.

At 22, Kostyuk is still very young and hungry for success. She is, however, not as reckless on court as she was, say, two years ago. She is more patient in rallies and willing to wait for the right ball to unleash a big groundstroke and a big result is likely around the corner.

Given the past results and patterns, that might as well come at the 2025 Australian Open.