Anastasia Kostyukova is a PSA PAYBYFACE RANDBURG OPEN 2022 semi-finalist

On October 19-23, the PaybyFace Randburg Open squash tournament was held in South Africa (Johannesburg). French athlete Elise Romba led the seeding among women, she was joined by compatriots Cara Linkou and Lila Brevard-Belliot. Noor Megahead from Egypt and Anastasia Kostyukova from Ukraine, as well as South African trio Teagan Lee Roux, Cheyna Wood and Jenny Preece round out the top eight.

For Kostyukova, it was the first experience of both playing at a tournament in South Africa and participating in a competition with a prize fund of $6,000 (W). As the athlete herself says: "The climate is completely different here, it's very high, it's hard to breathe, the ball is different and the court is completely closed without glass." But it seems to us that the difficulties only added excitement to Anastasia, she confidently went to the finals.

After a 3-2 win over Shelomie Truter in 37 minutes, Anastasia followed up with an equally impressive and hard-fought 3-0 win over Lila Brevard-Belliot. On the way to the final, Anastasia Kostyukova faced the first-seeded Eliza Rombo and, unfortunately, lost to the favorite of the tournament with a score of 3:1 (11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4).

Anastasia Kostyukova says: "I am happy that I reached the first semi-final of $6k in my career, of course, I am angry with myself because of the 3:1 defeat, but you know - we learn and move on."

Anastasia Kostyukova game results: PaybyFace Randburg Open

Round 2

Shelomy Truter VS Anastasia Kostyukova (3) 2:3 (8-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-5, 2-11)

1/4 Finals

Lilu Brevard-Belliot (5) VS Anastasia Kostyukova (3) 0:3 (11-13, 6-11, 8-11)

1/2 Finals

Eliza Rombo (1) VS Anastasia Kostyukova (3) 3:1 (11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4).