Late Night Drama at Madrid Open as Marta Kostyuk Has Heated Argument in Loss to Aryna Sabalenka

"She was waiting for five minutes to serve! And then she started to serve again—how is this possible?" Kostyuk vented to the umpire. "Why is it first serve again? But wait, she stopped by herself—nobody stopped her. It was like two minutes when she served first time and then she stopped. She could have stopped ten times, and she voluntarily stopped," said Marta. "You told her you have to keep going and she stopped by herself again, by herself. She said ‘I do not serve’. Nobody stopped her."

At the heart of the controversy is a crucial point of protocol: once a player has begun their service motion after being told to proceed, they should not be allowed to repeatedly stop without penalty. In this case, despite no official suspension of play, Sabalenka paused the action herself multiple times. As a result, when the match resumed, she was allowed to start again with a first serve — a massive advantage in a tight tiebreaker situation.

Critics and fans alike were quick to point out the weak umpiring, arguing that players should not be able to unilaterally decide when to pause play after official instructions to continue. In a sport where momentum is everything, especially in the razor-thin margins of a tiebreaker, such decisions can swing the outcome. The Madrid rain may have been light, but the storm it triggered around this match is likely to linger far longer. 

There was no handshake after the match as usual from the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who played a fantastic match and went down fighting against the best player on WTA right now.