Why Marta Kostyuk’s comments to Tennis365 have been taken out of context
When Marta Kostyuk sat down with Tennis365 for an exclusive interview conducted at the Wuhan Open earlier this month, she gave honest and thoughtful comments as she reflected on her tennis year.
The burning ambition shining through in this inspirational young Ukrainian athlete shone through as she spoke about her sense of deflation over a season that she felt could have offered her so much more.
The champion spirit inside Marta means she finds it hard to accept when she loses out against players in the top 10 in the rankings, with the words she used to describe her frustration widely repeated across the world’s media in recent days.
“I just feel like I was hitting the wall many, many times this year, losing a lot of matches to top 10 players,” she told us. “In a lot of matches, I was really close and I couldn’t get over the line. So as the year comes to an end, it is frustrating. I feel like I need to take the last few steps to overcome this.
“It’s important that you really believe in what you do and believe it will happen for you. This year, it has felt like there was obstacle after obstacle at times, I wasn’t very lucky with the draws. Somehow, I ended up where I am. It was a decent year, but not good enough for me.”
More Tennis News
WATCH: Iga Swiatek does a ‘wacky’ move in her practice sessions and this is why it helps her
We initially inserted a comment asking if Kostyuk was ‘intimidated’ by Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, but this was the precise question that Marta responded to with the quotes that follow here:
When you play Sabalenka and Swiatek, how close do you feel you are? What makes them a little better? Their consistency or their mental strength?
“With Iga, when I have played her, I wasn’t ready to play her at all,” she stated. “I played her over a year ago. With Aryna I don’t know, to be honest.
“When I look at these players, I have my own skills, but at the end of the day, they are all much bigger than me, much taller than me, much stronger than me. We all have different biological structures.
“Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. I know players who are good players who have higher levels of it. It’s just natural, they don’t take anything. I’m sure of that. It’s just the biology of their body. Obviously, that definitely helps. I’m trying to see how I can beat these players with the tennis skills I have, but I have to work more than they have to win the points.
“I am much more of, like, an athletic player. I cannot just hit the ball hard, sweeping players out of the court with my power. I cannot make myself suddenly 10kgs bigger or five centimetres taller, so I have to find ways to use everything I have at 100 percent.
“For other players, they have more of an advantage in other things. This is just the way I am. My body, I’m really small. I look at the pictures when we are on the court and I look so much smaller than everyone. It’s just part of the sport.
“I think it’s a very cool challenge, if I think about it. I really have to sit down and think, okay, what can I do to get make better against these players. I’m sure there are many, many things I can do better.”
These comments were an honest reflection of how Marta feels on court, but they have been spun to insinuate Kostyuk was criticising her opponents, which was never her intention.
Tennis365 initially opted not to include Marta’s comment about players “not taking anything” as we didn’t want this story to have any contentious undertones, but the world’s media has picked up on Marta’s comments and run them in a negative light.
The player has received nasty comments on social media and that should never have been the outcome from an enjoyable interview that shone a light on the mindset of a player who will be eying up a big breakthrough at the top of the game in 2026.
Tennis365 is a platform that has always prided itself on promoting the game in a positive light and we hope the clarification in this article will end any debate over comments that have been spun wildly by other areas of the world’s media.
