Could Marta Kostyuk have used roof closing 'distraction' to her advantage against Mirra Andreeva in French Open semi-final?

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Could Marta Kostyuk have taken more advantage of the ”distraction” of the Philippe-Chatrier roof closing mid-game in her French Open semi-final against Mirra Andreeva?

'It's a distraction' - Experts react to controversial 'closing roof' during Kostyuk v Andreeva semi

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Kostyuk was beaten in straight sets by Andreeva as her clay winning streak was snapped at 17 matches.

Kostyuk was on the back foot for much of the contest but showed signs of a fightback in the middle of the second set as she broke to love.

That came shortly after the roof on the main show court had started to slowly close due to the incoming threat of rain in Paris.

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Play was not stopped while the roof closed and if Andreeva was put off by it, she quickly recovered to seal a 6-1 6-3 victory.

”I was thinking it’s a distraction,” said TNT Sports expert Chris Evert. ”You throw your toss up and there’s the roof moving, and it’s darker on one side than the other.”

TNT Sports expert Coco Vandeweghe agreed that it was a ”distraction” and thought Kostyuk could have used it to turn the contest in her favour.

”I am surprised as Marta Kostyuk could have used that to her advantage to just slow things down,” she said.

”When you are losing you want to slow things down and lose as slowly as possible, because you never know, Mirra Andreeva might blink.

”She kind of started to but there just wasn’t enough time for Kostyuk to get back into the match.”

Highlights: Watch as Andreeva reaches maiden Grand Slam final with emphatic win over Kostyuk

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Andreeva will compete in her first Grand Slam final on Saturday, against qualifier Maja Chwalinska.

Vandeweghe said she was impressed with how the eighth seed kept her composure, a year after her shock defeat to wildcard Lois Boisson in the quarter-finals.

”We think of Andreeva and we think back to last year when she was playing Boisson and completely mentally collapsed,” said Vandeweghe.

”That is something that has been the calling card for her when she plays and things go against her and she feels overpowered; she mentally disappears.

”Today, with the conditions, the wind, and her opponent, she had every reason to self-destruct but she didn’t, she stayed composed, not only when it was going against her but when she had the momentum.

”There wasn’t as much of an up-and-down rollercoaster that we are used to when we watch Andreeva.”

Andreeva took advantage of 34 unforced errors from Kostyuk to win in 76 minutes.

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Vandeweghe picked out two "big factors" in Andreeva coming out on top, a month after losing to Kostyuk in straight sets in the Madrid Open final.

She said: ”What I thought was the biggest difference was Andreeva’s forehand, she was really able to stay aggressive on that side.

”Sometimes she will go to the chip where she can start playing defence and get too passive, and that’s where Kostyuk could have capitalised, but she didn’t have the opportunity.

”Andreeva was also serving so well that Kostyuk couldn’t get into the service games as she did in Madrid. Those were the two big factors and there were no inroads for Kostyuk.”

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