Kostyuk vs – Marta Kostyuk and Mirra Andreeva begin their French Open 2026 women’s semi-final with wind already disrupting play. Kostyuk’s preparation is shadowed by the missile strike near her family home in Kyiv, while Andreeva aims to build on her Madrid Open loss to Ko
Marta Kostyuk steps out with a huge smile and a wave to the Philippe Chatrier crowd. Mirra Andreeva doesn’t. The Ukrainian looks ready for the spotlight; the Russian looks like she came to survive it.
Then the wind hits.
It’s strong enough to have “caused havoc yesterday” and it’s stronger today, turning every rally into a test of timing and nerves. For Kostyuk, the tennis stakes are obvious. The emotional ones run deeper—and the crowd can feel that shift in the air, even before the first real rhythm settles.
At 15h (2pm BST), Kostyuk and Andreeva meet in the women’s semi-finals of the French Open 2026.
The match starts with quick shocks. In the first set, Kostyuk is down 0-2 to Andreeva, with the asterisk noting which player serves next. Kostyuk’s serve then draws a nasty chain of errors from Andreeva: Kostyuk “gobbles up an Andreeva second serve for 0-15. ” Andreeva answers with an error. then an edgy moment—Andreeva double faults. Suddenly, there are three break points on the table.
But momentum can’t be held for long in this weather. Kostyuk coughs up two forehand errors, the score shifts to 3-40, and the advantage fractures again as Andreeva manages to squeeze through from deuce to consolidate the break.
It’s the kind of swing that makes you understand how close this match is already—one loose exchange, one misjudged gust, and the entire set can tilt.
Before their semi-final even properly locks in. the wider day is already moving: Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. the top seeds. have won the mixed doubles final 4-6. 6-3. 10-4 against the Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and the American Evan King. Earlier still. Britain’s Henry Patten—playing with his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara—has booked his first French Open men’s doubles final. The 2024 Wimbledon and 2025 Australian Open champs beat the home pair Quentin Halys and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 6-4. And before tomorrow’s all-Italian men’s semi-final between Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi. there’s already been another victory for their compatriots.
For Kostyuk, though, the story doesn’t begin with clay and wind. It begins hours before her first-round match—when she learned a missile had struck close to her family home in Kyiv.
Aged 23, Kostyuk has taken time to piece together the full range of her talent. Now, she’s on a 17-match winning run on clay. That run comes with a different kind of focus: she is playing while knowing she represents something bigger than herself. while also learning how tennis can make the rest of life feel manageable for a moment.
Andreeva, at 17, arrives with the kind of status that tournaments have a habit of turning into prophecy. She burst into the semi-finals as a precocious 17-year-old in 2024, and she is already framed as a future Grand Slam champion by how she’s been moving through these rounds.
Last month in Madrid, Kostyuk did beat Andreeva in the final, 6-3, 7-5. Kostyuk dictated most of the points that day, which leaves one pressing question hanging over this semi-final: will Andreeva change her tactics to meet Kostyuk’s power, or will she keep trusting the steadier shape of her game?
There’s also experience at the business end of slams. Andreeva, despite being four years younger, has lived more of the late-stage pressure in Grand Slam settings. Still, with Kostyuk’s power in play, the early feeling is that she is the slightly better bet—until emotions start deciding the match.
That theme shows up immediately in the second half of the opening moments. With Kostyuk serving first at 0-1 in the set, she reaches 30-15, only for the air to snap again. The umpire is already slapping down the noisy crowd, and then Andreeva brings the game level at 30-all.
Kostyuk’s composure wobbles. An edgy double fault gifts Andreeva an early break point. Kostyuk then clunks into the net, and the crowd goes silent. It’s a nervy start from the Ukrainian — the kind of beginning that feels like it’s being written in quick corrections.
Kostyuk is left to respond under the same unstable conditions that toppled others. Yesterday, Aryna Sabalenka “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,” guaranteeing two first-time grand slam champions this weekend.
The French Open semi-final day feels full of “the unknown,” but it also carries the weight of the shadow Russia’s war in Ukraine has cast over the draw.
Saturday’s possible match-ups add even more pressure. If Kostyuk wins and becomes the first Ukrainian woman to reach a major final. she could face another Russian—Diana Shnaider—on Saturday. Shnaider stayed impressively calm in the eye of Sabalenka’s storm yesterday. In the other semi-final. Shnaider plays fellow slam semi-final debutant Maja Chwalinska. the Polish qualifier enjoying the run of her life.
Chwalinska’s story is also tied to mental health: she took an indefinite break from tennis five years ago because of depression. Like Kostyuk, she is fully aware that life can keep widening beyond sport, even while you are still trying to win the match in front of you.
Back on court, the wind continues to bully every decision. In the first set, Kostyuk has had chances created by Andreeva’s errors—double faults, forehand mistakes, and the ugly arithmetic of unforced errors—but she’s also paid for her own lapses. The scoreboard doesn’t forgive either.
For now, Andreeva has consolidated the break after surviving the surge, and the semi-final has turned into a question that goes beyond who has the better shot.
Under harsh conditions and heavier history, the decisive factor is starting to look like what happens when the body goes tight and the mind has to keep its footing—through every gust, every mistake, and every attempt to regain control.
French Open 2026 women’s semi-finals Marta Kostyuk Mirra Andreeva Philippe Chatrier wind disruption Kyiv missile strike Ukraine Russia war live tennis