{"id":216138,"date":"2025-10-21T19:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/216138\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T19:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:35:08","slug":"marta-kostyuk-cites-levels-of-testosterone-when-asked-if-intimidated-by-aryna-sabalenka-iga-swiatek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/216138\/","title":{"rendered":"Marta Kostyuk cites \u2018levels of testosterone\u2019 when asked if intimidated by Aryna Sabalenka, Iga \u015awi\u0105tek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marta Kostyuk<\/a> has said that she \u201cfeels smaller\u201d next to world No. 1 and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a>, and pointed to \u201clevels of testosterone\u201d when asked if she is intimidated by playing them.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, the same height as \u015awi\u0105tek and two inches shorter than Sabalenka, said that they are \u201cmuch bigger than me, much taller than me, much stronger than me,\u201d in an interview with Tennis 365<\/a> in Wuhan, China.<\/p>\n

\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 \u2026 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,\u201d Kostyuk said, when asked if she found playing Sabalenka and \u015awi\u0105tek to be intimidating.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Ukrainian has not played \u015awi\u0105tek 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was waiting for five minutes to serve, and then she tried to serve again \u2014 how is this possible?\u201d Kostyuk asked Zhang at the time. The players have previously clashed over Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, with Sabalenka, who is Belarusian, saying in a 2023 French Open news conference that she did not mind if Kostyuk \u201chated\u201d her over the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe never says that she personally doesn\u2019t support this war,\u201d Kostyuk said in her own news conference. \u201cShe should talk for herself I think, first of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her overall head-to-head record against both players stands at 0-4 vs. Sabalenka, who is 27, and 0-3 vs. \u015awi\u0105tek, who is 24, with zero sets won.<\/p>\n

Kostyuk also acknowledged in her Wuhan interview that Sabalenka and \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s mentality in big moments makes them stand out, citing how Sabalenka plays without doubts. \u201cFor me, it is not so easy for me to play without doubt,\u201d Kostyuk said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marta Kostyuk has said that she \u201cfeels smaller\u201d next to world No. 1 and world No. 2 Aryna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-216138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}