Marta Kostyuk cites ‘levels of testosterone’ when asked if intimidated by Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Świątek

Marta Kostyuk has said that she “feels smaller” next to world No. 1 and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek, and pointed to “levels of testosterone” when asked if she is intimidated by playing them.

Kostyuk, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, the same height as Świątek and two inches shorter than Sabalenka, said that they are “much bigger than me, much taller than me, much stronger than me,” in an interview with Tennis 365 in Wuhan, China.

“We all have our own biological structure. Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. It’s just natural and that definitely helps … I try to see how I can beat these players with the tennis skills I have, but I have to work harder to win the points. I have to run a lot more than them to win points,” Kostyuk said, when asked if she found playing Sabalenka and Świątek to be intimidating.

The 23-year-old Ukrainian has not played Świątek in 2025, but has lost two tight matches to Sabalenka, with three of four sets played going to a tiebreak. Kostyuk held set points against Sabalenka in both sets of the first of those matches, at the WTA 1000 Madrid Open.

With rain falling during the second-set tiebreak of that match, Sabalenka stopped play between her first and second serve despite having been told to continue by chair umpire Jenny Zhang. Sabalenka then got her first serve back when the match resumed, later admitting that she had stopped because she did not want to hit a double fault.

“She was waiting for five minutes to serve, and then she tried to serve again — how is this possible?” Kostyuk asked Zhang at the time. The players have previously clashed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Sabalenka, who is Belarusian, saying in a 2023 French Open news conference that she did not mind if Kostyuk “hated” her over the war.

“She never says that she personally doesn’t support this war,” Kostyuk said in her own news conference. “She should talk for herself I think, first of all.”

Her overall head-to-head record against both players stands at 0-4 vs. Sabalenka, who is 27, and 0-3 vs. Świątek, who is 24, with zero sets won.

Kostyuk also acknowledged in her Wuhan interview that Sabalenka and Świątek’s mentality in big moments makes them stand out, citing how Sabalenka plays without doubts. “For me, it is not so easy for me to play without doubt,” Kostyuk said.