Marta Kostyuk shares strong words about Iga Swiatek

Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk says she has a lot of respect for Iga Swiatek and added the Pole deserves to be the new world No. 1.

Swiatek has been absolutely brilliant over the last two and a half months as she has won her last 23 matches.

After winning Doha, Indian Wells and Miami, Swiatek became the world No. 1 for the first time in her career.

Just before the start of Miami, former three-time Grand Slam champion Barty announced a shock retirement from tennis.

Barty filled the paperwork to have her name removed from the WTA rankings list as Swiatek replaced her after Miami.

Swiatek has become a dominant force on the WTA Tour and Kostyuk says the Pole is where she deserves to be.

“A lot of respect for Iga. The way she plays, thinks, talks, it’s very good to have someone at the top like her. Even now with the situation, I’ve spoken to her a couple of times. She’s very grounded. Similar to Barty. I think it’s great when someone like this is ruling,” Kostyuk told WTA Insider.

Kostyuk makes a good start in Madrid

On Friday, Kostyuk saw off Clara Tauson 6-3 6-2 to reach the Madrid second round.

Kostyuk is making her third appearance in Madrid and for the first time she reached the second round at the tournament.

Now, Kostyuk feels her game is balanced and she is hoping to take her game to another level.

“I have a balanced game, but my problem was that I couldn’t find the order in things. I couldn’t put it together. When you can do a lot of things you don’t know what to do at what times. The experience helped me become the way I want to be. It’s about a balanced game,” Kostyuk explained.