LONDON (AP) — Marta Kostyuk made a big impression in her Centre Court debut by beating Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinals on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Ukrainian also reached the last four at the French Open, losing to Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, the eventual champion in Paris.
Kostyuk raised her hands and dropped to her knees after Paolini scuffed a shot on her second match point. After shaking hands with the Italian, Kostyuk did a pirouette on court.
The 12th-seeded Kostyuk had a sneak peak at Centre Court on Tuesday so that she wasn't overwhelmed for the match.
“I was flabbergasted by this entrance and everything inside,” she said in an on-court interview. “I was like, ‘wow,’ I need one day to recover from what I saw. ... I was on this court as (a) spectator once nine years ago watching Roger (Federer)."
Kostyuk will be back on Centre Court on Thursday to face Linda Noskova for a spot in Saturday's final. Noskova beat Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-5 on No. 1 Court.
It's the first career Grand Slam semifinal for the 21-year-old Noskova, who improved to 10-1 on grass this season.
“I was as a little bit nervous before the match,” said Noskova, who beat Jessica Pegula in the Berlin Open final in the buildup to Wimbledon. “Usually when its really, really important for me and I'm putting a little bit of pressure on myself, that's when I play the best.”
The other women's semifinal features Coco Gauff against Karolina Muchova, who like Noskova is from the Czech Republic. They're up first on Centre Court on Thursday.
Paolini, the 2024 Wimbledon runner-up, made 26 unforced errors and hit just eight winners.
Two men's quarterfinals were also being played Thursday. British wild card Arthur Fery and Flavio Cobolli of Italy were on Centre Court and had a surprise visitor — Britain’s Queen Camilla — in the hallway moments before they walked onto court.
On No. 1 Court, French Open champion Alexander Zverev was facing Taylor Fritz of the United States.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Pickleball Read morePickleball
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.