French Open: Andreeva storms into first major final with comfortable win over Kostyuk

Mirra Andreeva will play in her first grand slam final after she produced a brilliant display to defeat Marta Kostyuk and reach Saturday's French Open showpiece.

Andreeva, who lost her previous meeting with Kostyuk in the Madrid Open last month, exacted her revenge over the Ukrainian with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 victory on Thursday (June 4).

The eighth seed will take on either Diana Shnaider or qualifier Maja Chwalinska for the chance to become the champion at Roland-Garros for the very first time.

Having entered this match on a 17-match winning run on clay, Kostyuk struggled to find her rhythm in the opening exchanges and was broken in the opening game by Andreeva.

Andreeva reeled off the first four games with the minimum of fuss and could have been 5-0 in front, but Kostyuk saved five break points before getting herself on the scoreboard.

However, the damage had already been done by Andreeva, who claimed the early advantage on Court Philippe-Chatrier, and the second set followed a similar pattern to the first.

Kostyuk was unable to deal with Andreeva's power and precision and lost the first three games of the second, but a break in the seventh game had the set back on serve.

But Andreeva quickly dusted herself down and got the better of Kostyuk's serve to go within one game of the showpiece match, and her progression was sealed when a return from her opponent landed long, as the Russian let out a huge roar into the Paris sky.

Teenage kicks land on the biggest of stages

Having fallen short of a spot in the final at the French Open two years ago, Andreeva ensured there would be no near miss here as she saved the best performance of her Roland-Garros campaign for the semi-final, though she will be hoping to go one better this weekend.

By reaching the showpiece match, Andreeva (19 years and 25 days) is the fifth-youngest women's singles finalist at the French Open in the last 30 years, older only than Martina Hingis (1997), Kim Clijsters (2001), Coco Gauff (2022) and Hingis again (1999).

Including males, Andreeva (born in 2007) is the first player born since 2005 to reach a major final, while she also equalled the best result achieved by her coach, Conchita Martinez, at the French Open by reaching the final (made by the Spaniard in 2000, defeated by Mary Pierce).

For Kostyuk, she will be left to rue a plethora of missed opportunities that cost her a spot in the final. She registered 34 unforced errors, compared to Andreeva's 22, while also serving up four double faults.