{"id":402753,"date":"2026-01-11T14:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/402753\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T14:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:53:07","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-wins-brisbane-title-with-statement-performance-against-marta-kostyuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/402753\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka wins Brisbane title with statement performance against Marta Kostyuk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka started the 2026 season in supreme fashion, seeing off Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-3 to defend her Brisbane crown, sending a warning shot to competitors ahead of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The world number one didn’t drop a set all week, blowing opponents off court with her typical huge hitting, while also displaying more touch and versatility. She was once again comfortable in the final against a spirited\u00a0Kostyuk<\/a>, as she clinched the 22nd title of her career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two-time Australian Open champion loves playing in Australia, winning 38 of her last 40 matches there. She will now head to Melbourne to reclaim the throne after losing in a thrilling final to Madison Keys<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

“Every day you go out there and prove your level, and I think this week I did it really well,” Sabalenka<\/a> said in her victory speech.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the Australian Open, she continued: “The only thing I know is that I’ll be there, I’ll be fighting.<\/p>\n

“I’ll do my best to go as far as possible.\u00a0And do a little bit better than last year. That’s my focus.”<\/p>\n

Sabalenka claimed an early break in the first set, but Kostyuk showed her fighting spirit to bring the match back on serve. However, the Belarusian pounced to break again at 5-4, taking the first set.<\/p>\n

The second set saw Sabalenka grab another early break, but that was all she needed as that proved to be the difference, with Kostyuk struggling to get a look in on her serve.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss, it was a positive week for Kostyuk, defeating three top-10 players en route to the final. She had beaten just one in the entirety of 2025.<\/p>\n

As a result, she has re-entered the top 20 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

There has been animosity between the pair in the past, and like other Ukrainians, Kostyuk refuses to shake hands with Russians or Belarusians because of the war in her homeland.<\/p>\n

There was no handshake in Brisbane, and in her post-match speech, Kostyuk brought up the situation in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanna say a few words about Ukraine. I play every day with pain in my heart. There are thousands of people who are without light and warm water right now. It\u2019s -20 degrees outside,” said Kostyuk.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s very painful to live this reality every day. My sister is sleeping under 3 blankets because of how cold it is at home. I was incredibly moved and happy to see so many Ukrainian flags this week.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Open begins on January 18th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka started the 2026 season in supreme fashion, seeing off Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-3 to defend her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-402753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}