Kostyuk dismantles Noskova to reach first Madrid semi-final on perfect clay record
Kostyuk (No 26) beat Noskova (No 13) 7-6 (1), 6-0, won the tiebreak 7-1, and took the second set without dropping a game. Ten wins in a row, ten matches on clay without a loss, and a semi-final against Potapova. McNally said she didn’t want to play her in Rome. On this evidence, nobody does.
Marta Kostyuk, Madrid 2026 | © Madrid Trophy Promotion
Marta Kostyuk, the No 26 seed, swept into the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open with a commanding 7-6 (1), 6-0 victory over Czech Linda Noskova, the No 13 seed, on Wednesday evening. Kostyuk is extending her unbeaten clay record in 2026 to ten matches and her winning streak to a career-high ten consecutive wins, which began with her Rouen title.
The match told the story of the set. Noskova, who had beaten Coco Gauff from a double break down in the third set four days earlier, pushed Kostyuk in the opening set before the Ukrainian seized control of the tiebreak with ruthless efficiency, winning it 7-1. From that moment, there was no contest. Kostyuk took the second set without dropping a game.
The run she is on has been building for weeks. After her crown in Rouen, she arrived in Madrid and beat Putintseva, Pegula and McNally without dropping a set before dismantling Noskova. After beating McNally in the round of 16, the American had a message at the net: “I don’t want to play you in Rome.”
“Turn that page and enjoy”
The Ukrainian has spoken during the week about how long it has taken her to understand Madrid. “I think it took me many years to learn how to play here,” she said after the Pegula win. “It’s very tricky, very different conditions. For me, this is not clay. Rouen is not clay. Clay is Rome probably or Paris, but the rest of the season is really different clay, where it’s not something I grew up on, and I had to learn how to adapt.”
On Wednesday, despite admitting the morning had not been easy, she found a way. “Today was not that type of day in the morning and I was forcing myself to smile, to enjoy,” she said on court. “At the end of the day it was a quarter-final match. No matter how it would turn around, I still think it was a great performance from me these past three weeks. At the end I managed to turn that page and enjoy again.”
She faces Austrian Anastasia Potapova, the lucky loser who has beaten Rybakina and Pliskova on her way to the semi-finals, next.
