Tennis fans were left divided after Marta Kostyuk’s controversial take on Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek’s superiority was clarified by a news media outlet that conducted an under-fire interview it did with the Ukrainian. While some fans expected a transparent clarification, others were of the opinion that Kostyuk’s words were offensive to the top two women’s tennis players in the world right now.
Recently, Tennis365 published excerpts from an interview they recently did featuring Kostyuk. Some of the Ukrainian’s words raised eyebrows, such as certain women’s tennis players having more testosterone and being bigger in size than her. Since Kostyuk cited the examples of Sabalenka and Swiatek in the interview, the common perception was that the Ukrainian was taking a swipe at the Belarusian and Pole’s superiority in women’s tennis in recent years.
More recently, Tennis365 issued a clarification, admitting that it had left out some ‘context’ with regards to some of Marta Kostyuk‘s answers to the questions it fielded.
Subsequently, tennis fans on X (formerly Twitter) minced no words as they vociferously criticized the media outlet for publishing perceived misinformation in the first place.
“Thank you for the clarification, but you owe Marta an apology for manipulating her words. It wasn’t the media or tennis fans who caused this situation—it was you,” one fan wrote.
“You’re very wrong for manipulating the interview by changing her answers and inserting questions that were never posed, and she’s very wrong for suggesting anyone’s blood levels of anything. Terrible article all around. Hope no one gives you interviews again,” commented another.
“They changed her answer and just now are posting what she actually said (maybe still not all of it). How is that journalism… Never believe what you read from sports media, ever,” the previous fan wrote in a separate post.
However, some fans opined that the media outlet’s clarification did little to change Kostyuk’s words with regards to the Ukrainian’s opinion on the superiority of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
“This really doesn’t change anything lol,” opined one.
“I read the context and her words are still idiotic and sore loser, so tf are you talking about? And, since WTA is retweeting this, where’s the punishment/ban for Sabalenka after she attacked a ball kid with her racquet?,” another asked.
“In what context was the testosterone comment appropriate?,” weighed in yet another fan.
Marta Kostyuk yet to win a set against Aryna Sabalenka & Iga Swiatek
Marta Kostyuk, despite achieving a career-high ranking of World No. 16 last year, is yet to convince when facing the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, two of the most dominant forces in women’s tennis in recent years.
Kostyuk has locked horns with Sabalenka on four occasions. All of them have resulted in straight-set losses for the Ukrainian, with the latest one coming at this year’s Italian Open. Here, the Belarusian registered a 6-1, 7-6(8) win over Kostyuk.
Against Swiatek, Marta Kostyuk has had to settle for second-best three times. The Ukrainian’s most recent meeting with the Pole, at last year’s Cincinnati Open, was won by the latter by a dominant margin of 6-2, 6-2.
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Edited by Sudipto Pati
