Marta Kostyuk delighted with Ukraine’s first-ever Finals win

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Transcript

00:00Obviously a great win today, but what was your take on the match and how it went?

00:04I think I was nervous in the beginning, but obviously it's normal and I was ready for

00:08it because it's finals.

00:10In general, when you play for your country, it's always more responsibility even though

00:16you try to deny it or not pay attention to it, but it's there and yeah, obviously a good

00:23win for me and first set was really, really close and really difficult, but I'm happy

00:28to be through.

00:29Talk to me about the game plan.

00:30We actually saw a lot of you talking to the captain and what was going on there.

00:36Well, captain Ilya is always in contact with my coach and she prepared the tactics and he

00:44was aware of the tactics, he had his own tactics, so we were talking about that and we were talking

00:49about am I doing the right things or should I change something and so on.

00:53We had the conversation going, but the problem was that it's very unusual for me to talk

00:59during singles.

01:01I felt like the changeovers were really quick and I always felt like I'm out of breath because

01:06instead of just like sitting and relaxing I was in conversation so I couldn't like catch

01:11a breath so it was a bit different and I tried in the second set to like take a bit more time

01:16because I thought that the changeovers are longer.

01:20But otherwise no, I think it was a good talk, good atmosphere and we were both in the game

01:26so it was important.

01:27And yeah, you made history today by becoming the first Ukrainian to play at the Billie Jean

01:32King Cup finals, so how special is that for you?

01:35Well, to be the first Ukrainian to play and to win and to do it in front of Billie Jean

01:40King herself, I mean it's a great honour and you know, before the match when you're nervous

01:46and you go through all these emotions you ask yourself sometimes why am I here, why I keep

01:51doing this to myself, it's so difficult sometimes you know and it's tiring but you know once you

01:56are in it and once you're on the court you know it's all worth it and you know you just

02:00try to soak in every moment and yeah it was also a great support and yeah I mean not much

02:08more I could ask for.

02:10And how do you feel about being out there playing for your country in front of the fans that

02:14we saw and having such a great match or how did it feel for you?

02:16Well I think you know thinking about what our people are going through every day you know

02:21I was just in Ukraine last week and yeah it's you know it's important that we are here that

02:29we are singing our anthem yeah so it's important that we are here that we are singing our anthem

02:36and you know we you know we we bring Ukraine on the world stage we have a platform and you

02:44know platform of truth you know talking about what's going on and definitely it's very special

02:51and you know we had an ambassador of Ukraine in China in the stands today and you know amazing

02:56crowd and it was so good that even the Chinese fans started to scream Ukraine it was very cute

03:03and very sweet and you know I think it was overall a great atmosphere and I just tried to like be

03:08really positive throughout the match and you know that's it.