Marta Kostyuk stuns Mirra Andreeva to win first WTA 1000 title in Madrid

Marta Kostyuk, Roland Garros dark horse?

The Ukrainian laid down a strong affirmative answer to that question on Saturday with a 6-3, 7-5 upset of No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, earning her a first WTA 1000 title of her career.

Kostyuk's one hour and 21-minute victory extended her unbeaten run on clay this spring to 12 straight matches, which is the longest winning streak of her career. Coming into the first WTA 1000 event of the clay-court season, she won a WTA 250 in Rouen, France, and also scored a win in Billie Jean King Cup play for Ukraine over Magda Linette. She lost just one set on her way to the title, in the semifinals against Anastasia Potapova, and also defeated Jessica Pegula in addition to Andreeva for a pair of Top 10 wins throughout.

The first player ranked outside the Top 20 to win Madrid since Aravane Rezai in 2010, Kostyuk will return to that status on Monday. She'll sit at a new career-high ranking of No. 15, bettering her prior career best by one spot.

"It feels unbelievable to stand here right now," Kostyuk said in her victory speech. "It took many years for me to reach this point, and the one word I think about right now is consistency. It's showing up every day, no matter how hard it is, no matter how much you love or hate what you do, and I've been doing that really well."

"If you look at the stats, up until last year [when she reached the quarterfinals], I think I was like 2-7 in Madrid, so I never, ever thought I would be able to lift the title here!" she added.

Kostyuk also swept Andreeva in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International in January, where she was a 7-6(7), 6-3 victor on the way to the final. In the reprise, she denied Andreeva a final set by recovering from a break down in the second set, and saving two set points in the second set's 10th game.

Andreeva double faulted to hand Kostyuk the decisive break in the second set, and after the Ukrainian let two match points slip away, she joyfully collapsed to her back on the clay when Andreeva's final backhand sailed long.

Andreeva had previously been 2-0 in WTA 1000 finals, winning both Dubai and Indian Wells last year.

"I would like to congratulate Marta, for how your clay season is going so far as well, you won two tournaments in a row, so you're playing very well, so [congratulations] for the win today," said Andreeva, who could not hold back tears in defeat.