"Marta Kostyuk is dumb"; "So embarrassing" - Fans slam Ukrainian for shocking 'testosterone' comments about Iga Swiatek & Aryna Sabalenka

Marta Kostyuk recently said that her inability to get wins against the top women's tennis players such as Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek boils down to them being 'bigger, taller and stronger' than her. She also bizarrely brought up the subject of testosterone levels. However, the Ukrainian's take didn't go down well with several tennis fans, and they subsequently criticized her reasoning.

23-year-old Kostyuk reached a career-high ranking of No. 16 last year and is currently ranked at No. 27. She has played reigning No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on four occasions and second-ranked Iga Swiatek thrice. The Ukrainian lost all seven matches and wasn't even able to take a set from her opponents spanning those encounters.

In a recent interview with Tennis365, Kostyuk, citing her past losses to Sabalenka, Swiatek and other elite-level WTA stars, said:

"They are all much bigger than me, much taller than me, much stronger than me. I feel smaller than them. 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 cannot make myself 10 kgs bigger or 5 cms taller so I have to use everything I have at 100 percent. It's just part of the sport and a very cool challenge for me to take on these players."

In one part of the interview, the Ukrainian also claimed that some women's tennis players have higher testosterone levels, implying that such a scenario helps them perform at a higher level.

"Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. It's just natural and that definitely helps," the 23-year-old added.

Most tennis fans on X (formerly Twitter), on taking notice of Marta Kostyuk's take, opined that the Ukrainian was making excuses.

"She's dumb and a whiner. But we already know that. Next," one fan wrote. "Saying this as a professional athlete is so embarrassing," commented another. "You are 5’9”, Coco Gauff too is 5’9”. Always one excuse or the other with you Kostyuk," another fan chimed in. "Iga is also 5'9"," one wrote in response to the previous comment. "Jasmine Paolini is 5’3” - even kids are taller than her. She has beat Iga 6-1/6-2. If you can’t beat - everything else is an excuse. And this is some next level excuse!," added another. "So did she just have her eyes closed when Barty or Henin was playing? This is one of the dumbest excuses for bad results, I've seen from a player in a long time," weighed in yet another fan.

"Aryna Sabalenka has played a lot of finals" - Marta Kostyuk on Belarusian's big-match experience

Marta Kostyuk during a press conference at the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart (Source: Getty)

In the same interview with Tennis365, Marta Kostyuk went on to share her thoughts on Aryna Sabalenka's ability to save break points. The Ukrainian remembered the break point opportunities she had against the Belarusian spanning their four clashes so far and opined that the latter's big-match experience helps her stay confident even in the most high-pressure situations.

"I have played some close matches against Aryna and you see how she plays the break points. She just doesn’t care. She has no doubt that she will save them. She hits a big serve and hits the forehand. No doubt. She is No 1 in the world, she has played a lot of finals and she has that confidence. That helps her to have no doubts," Marta Kostyuk said.

Kostyuk has made the decision to not participate anymore in the remainder of the 2025 tennis season, with her most recent singles outing resulting in a first-round loss to Karolina Muchova at the Wuhan Open.

Edited by Sudipto Pati