'She admitted it was on purpose': Marta Kostyuk reopens Sabalenka controversy ahead of Rome clash

Marta Kostyuk reiterated her displeasure regarding the recent encounter with Aryna Sabalenka at the Madrid Open, where they experienced tense moments during the second-set tie-break. The world No. 1 stopped a point at a critical moment, which upset the Ukrainian, who appeared ready to take the set and force a decider.

The match between Kostyuk and Sabalenka already had extra tension, considering that the Ukrainian had criticized the 3-time Grand Slam champion a couple of years ago for not speaking out against the Russia-Ukraine war, and they had a tense encounter back at the 2023 French Open, in one of the most controversial episodes due to Ukrainians refusing to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players. On that occasion, the Ukrainian left the court to boos after refusing to greet the Belarusian.

This was their first meeting since then, in which Kostyuk had good chances to – at least – take it to a third set – but Sabalenka ended up taking the victory 7-6, 7-6. During the second-set tie-break, Kostyuk was leading 5-4 and Sabalenka missed her first serve. However, before playing her second serve, she stopped the game complaining about the onset of rain, which led to several minutes without play, amidst protests from Kostyuk who hoped to resume the match quickly and was upset that her opponent stopped everything at that moment.

Now they are preparing for a rematch just two weeks later, this time in the round of 16 of the Rome Open. Before the match, Kostyuk responded to an interview with the Ukrainian media outlet BTU, in which she again referred to the latest controversy with Sabalenka. “For the tiebreak incident... Yes, we did consider contacting the WTA—Sandra [Zanevska] wanted to raise a few questions. Maybe we’ll revisit it during Roland Garros. Of course, nothing will change now.”

“Situations like that are tricky. No matter what the rules say, the chair umpire’s decision in real time is almost impossible to overturn—it all happens in a split second. And honestly, it was a strange one. If Sabalenka had stopped the point before the serve, I wouldn’t have had any issue. But the point had already started, and at that stage, she wasn’t allowed to stop it.”

“The most absurd part is that she later admitted in an interview that she did it on purpose—to avoid serving a double fault. I have a lot of questions and no answers. But that’s how it goes sometimes. Now she has to live with that decision (laughs).”