diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index fdee18f6e..46e2b0537 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "userpath~=1.7",
   "uv>=0.5.23",
   "virtualenv>=20.26.6",
-  "zstandard<1",
+  "backports.zstd>=1.0.0 ; python_version<'3.14'",
 ]
 dynamic = ["version"]
 
diff --git a/src/hatch/python/resolve.py b/src/hatch/python/resolve.py
index cf17a29b7..9d7459d5a 100644
--- a/src/hatch/python/resolve.py
+++ b/src/hatch/python/resolve.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import sys
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from functools import cached_property
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Literal
 
 from hatch.config.constants import PythonEnvVars
 from hatch.errors import PythonDistributionResolutionError, PythonDistributionUnknownError
@@ -55,43 +55,36 @@ def archive_name(self) -> str:
         return self.source.rsplit("/", 1)[-1]
 
     def unpack(self, archive: Path, directory: Path) -> None:
+        # zip
         if self.source.endswith(".zip"):
             import zipfile
 
             with zipfile.ZipFile(archive, "r") as zf:
                 zf.extractall(directory)
-        elif self.source.endswith((".tar.gz", ".tgz")):
-            import tarfile
+            return
 
-            with tarfile.open(archive, "r:gz") as tf:
-                if sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 12):
-                    tf.extractall(directory, filter="data")
-                else:
-                    tf.extractall(directory)  # noqa: S202
-        elif self.source.endswith((".tar.bz2", ".bz2")):
+        # tar
+        if sys.version_info >= (3, 14):
             import tarfile
+        else:
+            # for zstd support (introduced in Python 3.14)
+            # and filter kwarg (introduced in Python 3.12)
+            from backports.zstd import tarfile
 
-            with tarfile.open(archive, "r:bz2") as tf:
-                if sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 12):
-                    tf.extractall(directory, filter="data")
-                else:
-                    tf.extractall(directory)  # noqa: S202
+        mode: Literal["r:gz", "r:bz2", "r:zst"]
+        if self.source.endswith((".tar.gz", ".tgz")):
+            mode = "r:gz"
+        elif self.source.endswith((".tar.bz2", ".bz2")):
+            mode = "r:bz2"
         elif self.source.endswith((".tar.zst", ".tar.zstd")):
-            import tarfile
-
-            import zstandard
-
-            with open(archive, "rb") as ifh:
-                dctx = zstandard.ZstdDecompressor()
-                with dctx.stream_reader(ifh) as reader, tarfile.open(mode="r|", fileobj=reader) as tf:
-                    if sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 12):
-                        tf.extractall(directory, filter="data")
-                    else:
-                        tf.extractall(directory)  # noqa: S202
+            mode = "r:zst"
         else:
             message = f"Unknown archive type: {archive}"
             raise ValueError(message)
 
+        with tarfile.open(archive, mode) as tf:
+            tf.extractall(directory, filter="data")
+
     @property
     @abstractmethod
     def version(self) -> Version: