Marta Kostyuk was just five years old when she stepped onto a tennis court for the first time, chasing a chance to spend more time with her mom. Twenty years later, she’s a Grand Slam semifinalist, a WTA 1000 champion, and one of the most outspoken voices for her country on the world stage. Her story is one of talent, family, and an unshakable refusal to stay quiet while Ukraine is at war.
Slide through to see 12 stunning shots tracking her spectacular rise, her elite athletic physique, and the court milestones that made her a global icon.
Marta Kostyuk
Who Is Marta Kostyuk
Marta Kostyuk was born on June 28, 2002, in Kyiv, Ukraine. From the very start, tennis was the family business, not just a hobby. By the time most kids are learning to ride a bike without training wheels, she was already on court most days of the week. Few people watching her back then could have guessed how far that little girl from Kyiv would go.
A Family Built on Tennis
Her mother, Talina Beiko, played professionally and became Marta’s very first coach. Her father, Oleh Kostyuk, worked behind the scenes as technical director of a junior tournament in Kyiv. She grew up with two sisters who also picked up rackets, so family dinners probably came with a fair amount of match talk. Marta has said her real motivation as a five year old wasn’t winning, it was simply wanting to spend more time with her mom on the court.
A Junior Champion at 14
In 2017, Marta won the Australian Open girls’ singles title, becoming the first Ukrainian to do it. She was only 14, beating the top seed in a tight three setter on Rod Laver Arena. That win put her on the radar of the entire tennis world almost overnight. Looking back, it’s clear that result wasn’t a fluke, it was a preview.
A Teenager With a Microphone, and a Message
At just 13 years old, before most of her big tennis wins, Marta stood up in the Ukrainian Parliament and spoke about the need for better conditions for young athletes. That’s not a typical Tuesday for a 13 year old. It was a moment that stuck with her, and one she’s pointed back to as the start of understanding how much her voice could matter. Years later, that same willingness to speak up would define her on a much bigger stage.
Climbing to World No. 12
Marta’s rise wasn’t an overnight thing, it was built match by match, year by year. In June 2026, she reached a career high ranking of No. 12 in the world. For a player who turned pro as a young teenager, this was the payoff for nearly a decade of grinding through tour life. The kind of number that takes patience most people don’t see from the outside.
Love on Her Own Terms
In November 2023, Marta married George Kyzymenko in a quiet ceremony in Cyprus, after announcing their engagement earlier that year. The two actually grew up training at the same tennis club in Kyiv as young children before crossing paths again as adults. She is someone who tends to keep her personal life fairly private, letting her tennis and her activism take center stage instead.
Her Biggest Title Yet
In 2026, Marta won the Madrid Open, her first ever WTA 1000 level title. Titles at that level are a different animal entirely, they mean beating the best players in the world over and over in the same week. It was the clearest sign yet that her career was hitting a new gear. And it was only the beginning of an even bigger run.
Speaking Up When It Mattered Most
During the 2026 French Open, after winning her first round match, Marta gave an emotional on court interview. She revealed that a missile had landed near her parents’ home in Ukraine just hours earlier. In that moment, the war stopped being background noise and became the actual story, live, on one of tennis’s biggest stages.
Building Something Bigger Than Herself
Marta created a charitable foundation dedicated to supporting youth tennis in Ukraine, even while the country is still dealing with the war. She’s worked directly with government ministries and tennis federations to make it real, not just a name on a website. It’s the kind of project that takes time and energy most professional athletes simply don’t have left over. For her, it seems to matter more than rest days.
A Run for the History Books
At the 2026 French Open, Marta reached her first ever Grand Slam semifinal. Along the way, she beat third seed Iga Świątek in the fourth round, a result that turned heads across the entire tournament. Two weeks that completely changed how people talked about her career. The kind of run players dream about for years before it actually happens.
The Backflip Champion
After winning the Madrid Open, her first ever WTA 1000 title, Marta celebrated with a backflip right there on the court. She later admitted she’d practiced it just one day before that final, joking she figured she didn’t need to practice again a month later before trying it once more. It’s the kind of moment that shows there’s a fun, fearless streak behind all that competitive focus.
The 2026 Breakout Season
2026 turned into the best year of Marta’s career so far. She won her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid, climbed to a career high ranking of No. 12, and reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open, all in the span of a few months. It’s the kind of stretch most players wait their entire careers for and never get. For Marta, it landed all at once.
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