{"id":236211,"date":"2025-10-23T23:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236211\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T23:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:38:17","slug":"tennis-outlet-says-it-altered-marta-kostyuk-interview-about-aryna-sabalenka-iga-swiatek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236211\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis outlet says it altered Marta Kostyuk interview about Aryna Sabalenka, Iga \u015awi\u0105tek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comments by Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk<\/a> in which she mentioned \u201ctestosterone levels\u201d in comparing herself with the two top women\u2019s tennis players were distorted by a question that was not asked, tennis outlet Tennis365 appeared to acknowledge Thursday.<\/p>\n

Before walking back its original version of the article, Tennis365 had said it asked Kostyuk in an interview from the Wuhan Open in China: \u201cDo you feel intimidated by players like Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Aryna Sabalenka?\u201d<\/p>\n

The outlet said Kostyuk responded: \u201cWe all have our own biological structure. Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. It\u2019s just natural and that definitely helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a story<\/a> published Thursday, Tennis365 said that it had \u201cinserted\u201d the question about intimidation between two parts of Kostyuk\u2019s answer to a different question. The original story also used two questions that were not included in its updated recap of the interview, but Tennis365 did not acknowledge those changes in its clarification.<\/p>\n

Tennis365 then reproduced her full quotes, which were in response to the question: \u201cWhen you play Sabalenka and \u015awi\u0105tek, how close do you feel you are? What makes them a little better? Their consistency or their mental strength?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kostyuk responded: \u201cWith Iga, when I have played her, I wasn\u2019t ready to play her at all, I played her over a year ago. With Aryna I don\u2019t know, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. I know players who are good players who have higher levels of it. It\u2019s just natural, they don\u2019t take anything. I\u2019m sure of that. It\u2019s just the biology of their body.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, that definitely helps. I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennis365 acknowledged that it had originally omitted part of her comments about testosterone, in which she said, \u201cit\u2019s just natural, they don\u2019t take anything. I\u2019m sure of that. It\u2019s just the biology of their body.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outlet said that it \u201cinitially opted not to include Marta\u2019s comment about players \u2018not taking anything\u2019 as we didn\u2019t want this story to have any contentious undertones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kostyuk did not respond to a request for comment made through her agent. Tennis 365 did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The WTA intervened on Kostyuk\u2019s behalf to establish the veracity of the interview after its original publication, according to a source briefed on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comments by Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk in which she mentioned \u201ctestosterone levels\u201d in comparing herself with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-236211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}