Madrid Open: Marta Kostyuk +6 in WTA Rankings as she sets up Mirra Andreeva final showdown
Marta Kostyuk and Mirra Andreeva are both on the rise in the WTA Rankings ahead of their showdown in the 2026 Madrid Open final.
World No 23 Kostyuk defeated 56th-ranked lucky loser Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 at Caja Magica on Thursday night to reach her maiden WTA 1000 final.
The 23-year-old Ukrainian’s run in the Spanish capital has lifted her six places to world No 17 in the Live WTA Rankings — one position below her career-high ranking.
After her semi-final win, Kostyuk said: “Even in tough moments today, I really tried to enjoy this moment being in the semi-finals here.
“And no matter how it would turn out, I really just — in 20-30 years, I want to think about this moment and really smile about it.
“Don’t remember the misery or being hard on myself, because at the end of the day, we all go out on court, and we do our absolute best always. And I did that today.
“The second set was really weird today. I hadn’t dropped a set all week, so to lose a set felt kind of weird. But I’m very proud with how I managed to keep supporting myself.
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“I wasn’t playing the way I always play today, but I felt like this was the key, and she didn’t like it. The match that we had last year was entirely different.
“I think she played very different, and the conditions were in her favour a bit today because the balls were extremely heavy and they were not picking up my spin.
“So she stayed very far from the baseline. And yeah, I tried different things. Clearly, what I was doing in the second set didn’t work, but I’m incredibly happy with the turnaround.”
In the first women’s semi-final, Andreeva downed world No 32 Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 7-6(8) to progress to her first title match in Madrid.
The Russian, who turned 19 on Wednesday, is chasing her third WTA 1000 title after she triumphed in Dubai and Indian Wells last year.
World No 8 Andreeva, who was the only top 10 player in the semi-final line-up, addressed her status as the favourite in the final.
“I don’t consider myself the favourite for the match because I know that whoever gets to the final is a tough opponent,” Andreeva said.
“I’ve learned not to care about the rankings of my opponent or the last name of my opponent as well.
“I’m just going to try to go on court and do the things that I have to do to really focus on the game plan that we create with Conchita, and that’s the only thing I can control.
“I cannot control the future. I cannot control the results, the outcome, so that doesn’t depend on me.
“In the final, I will just try to do everything that is – that I can control – and then we will see what’s going to happen.”
Andreeva has climbed to seventh in the Live WTA Rankings, with Elina Svitolina dropping from seventh to ninth and Jasmine Paolini moving up to eighth.
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