"It was sad, because I love to talk about different things" - Marta Kostyuk responds to misquoted comments ahead of final showdown against Sabalenka

Marta Kostyuk has come under a lot of flak in recent times after an interview back in October 2025 when she was misquoted speaking about Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. After reaching the final of the Brisbane International, she has reacted to this situation.

Back at the Wuhan Open, tennis publisher Tennis365 published an interview where they reported she had answered a question feeling intimidated by the world number one and two by referencing testosterone levels and physical differences.

This became heavily viral over social media, with an overwhelming number of people singling out Kostyuk for what looked like remarks as direct accusations. Tennis365 later issued an apology to the situation, admitting to a substantial editorial error.

On January 11, the Ukrainian is set to take to the court with Sabalenka her opponent as they clash for the Brisbane International title. The 23-year-old looked electric in her 6-0, 6-3 victory over former US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. It is a match that will have a lot of attention and onlookers viewing it with the prior story looming overhead.

After her triumph over Pegula, Kostyuk was asked about the situation that lent itself from this ugly situation. "I think it has never happened to me before that I was misquoted, especially this much, especially talking about a different topic," she said.

"For me, it was a little bit sad because I feel like if you start talking about things more deep, people just get scared or just get offended or just get stressed about it. In this case was about a journalist that was quoting me."

Kostyuk is widely recognised for being very outspoken, stating a lot of the things which comes to her mind. "So it was sad, because I love to talk about different things. I love to give different perspective on different topics," she admitted. "I mean, was not my responsibility that it happened, so of course it wasn't easy for me for some time, because I was misquoted big time, but other than that, people hear, people read into whichever way they want, and at the end of the day, I have nothing to do with it, so I'm fine."

The follow up question queried whether she would address the situation with either Sabalenka or Swiatek. "No, because they posted the second article in a few days when it became pretty big," she answered. "I had an idea to do that at first, because that's really not what I meant at all. But then when the second article came out, I was like 'okay, I have been pretty cleared out.'"

She continued: "If I had said something wrong, I never have a problem to apologise or to reach out to someone or whatever, but this was not the case at all. I don't think a lot of people have read that second article, because obviously it was not clickbait anymore, so no drama, not interesting. But yeah, I knew what I said, so I was okay."

It will be a very interesting final between the pair for reasons on and off the court. Both players have produced brilliant tennis this week, with Kostyuk defeating fellow top 10 players Mirra Andreeva and Amanda Anisimova ahead of her win against Pegula.

It will be an uphill task against the reigning champion, who goes into the final as the heavy favourite, with the added motivation of the previous drama. Back in December, she responded to the situation on Piers Morgan's show Uncensored. "That's so funny that we even talk about someone like Marta Kostyuk's comments but all I hear here is just excuses," she said. "And it's actually quite funny because she's a strong girl. She probably has more muscles than I do and she looks fit and strong and that's not the case in all of the matches she lost against top players."