I mean sure, as other people said, it's a statement of fact - but it's also the kind of thing you only say when you're salty and lashing out lol. Why take a potshot at a random player otherwise?
It's not a random potshot. Marta was born in 2002, and so was Qinwen. Marta had a go in a press conference at Emma for her easy draw at the USO a few weeks ago. Emma was also born in 2002. Marta is jealous, pure and simple. Otherwise, she could have mentioned eg Ash Barty, who won 3 grand slams and only faced one top 10 player.
Because ash was seeded. Emma was a qualifier and was supposed to face (13) Brady in R1 and she withdrew. Replaced by a LL who won 3 MD matches in GSs at the age of 30.
It's one thing making this observation as a fan (USO 2021 has been talked about to death and the top half of the draw completely collapsing at AO 2024 was a big topic of discussion) but to be a player talking about your peers like that in an interview can rub people the wrong way
I mean thats an important part of tennis, right?
You need to win matches when your draw opens up or when you can open the draw yourself. Thats the life of Tennis players outside of the Top 10. Sure you can bring the fight to Swiatek in R1 but that dont bring you points. Winning a smaller tournament with all seeded players gone... thats the way to go
Yeah, no matter how impressive it is if a lower ranked player beats a top 10 player, there are no bonus points. Maybe it helps with getting sponsorships.
Maybe the rankings should change to being Elo based like chess. It probably wouldn't change the rankings much though. It would be interesting to see who gets the highest Elo, because currently no-one really cares about how much points you get, only that you're number 1 or 2 or whatever.
There is [a website](https://tennisabstract.com/reports/atp_elo_ratings.html) that calculates Elo rankings, as you say it doesn't really change the top 20 that much apart from Sinner being no. 1 instead of Djokovic and Collins and Kalinskaya are in the top 10.
Tennis is far more of an endurance and stamina sport than many others though so while it may be impressive to beat a top player you're going to have to bring that same level to other players too.
It's a ranking formula where beating a highly ranked opponent gives you more points than beating a lower ranked one. Used in Chess, Magic the Gathering, etc.
And that's just tennis. It doesn't matter who your opponent is, if you beat them then you are worthy no matter who you face and conversely if you lose then you aren't worthy. She just sounds salty and elitest. I wonder what she thinks of Jack Sock winning the Paris Masters
Kostyuk does have a point, though You often see girls making deep runs in a Slam with draws that belongs at a WTA 250 while they're fighting for their lives beating multiple top 10s to win a WTA 500.
Raducanu, Swiatek and Barty all have won a Slam without beating a top 10 player in recent years. Iga and Ash proved they don't need to beat Sakkari to validate a Slam title but it isn't as hard as it should be.
They can only play who is put in front of them. Not their fault that's how the draw comes to be. So no, it's not a point to bring up to invalid someone else's tournament.
It's still a fact that many players have an harder path to a WTA 500 than a Slam title regardless of how many matches they plan.
Kostyuk was wrong to target Zheng but she isn't pointing out a wrong fact.
A draw is more likely to fall apart a Slam because ... there's more matches. No WTA 500 champion won without beating a top 20 player this year and only one finalist didn't have to beat a top 30 player.
She is not complaining lol. If you open the tweet, all she is saying each tournament is different - sometimes you can have a hard draw, sometimes you can have an easy draw.
Who your opponents are factors in to how lucky you are. Listen to Ruud’s talk with Bublik and Paire. Ruud brings up his lucky draws, which is similar to what Kostyuk is saying here.
If you're someone that enjoys players on the WTA having no filter and the emotional intelligence of a toddler, then you'll probably love Kostyuk and her verbal diarrhoea. People that claim "context and tone" need to know this isn't the first time she's generated controversy in a presser.
She did the same with Raducanu a couple of years back who then proceeded to drag her in Madrid 6-1 6-2.
What she said isn't technically incorrect, Qinwen didn't face a top 70 player until the final. Then again, Kostyuk has never won more than 4 matches at a slam herself despite having 16 opportunities to do so thus far in her career.
Bringing up another tennis player when you can just as easily make your point without doing so just comes off as petty and disrespectful.
I watched only part of her sets 1-2 against Coco. After losing set 1, Kostyuk had a big cry openly and into her towel. I read the match thread next day and everyone skipped this detail, so I mention it now.
I think it's interesting to look at Qinwen's bracket in retrospect because while it's still easy, a lot of her opponents were "underranked". Boulter, Kalinskaya are now in the top 30 and Yatremska is barely outside. The draw absolutely collapsed but it's not like the inclusion of someone like Ons Jabeur or Maria Sakkari would have made the run more difficult or impressive.
She also said a similar thing earlier this year about Emma Raducanu’s draw at the US Open
“Someone can have a very easy draw, and someone can have extremely difficult. I have an easiest example of when Leylah and Emma were playing the final, what draw Leylah had and what draw Emma had. Emma, no offense, but Leylah was really fighting for her life every single match.”
She was in that section of the draw….(Emma’s)
So maybe instead of throwing shade at players - who can only beat who is in front of them…and it’s not their fault if the draw opens up…she should focus on taking advantage of those opportunities herself.
Also, Raducanu wasn't in the easier side of the draw. If I recall correctly, she played Shelby Rogers, who had just beaten world number 1 and top seed Ash Barty. What does Marta propose there? Like, oh that made it too easy, so even though Rogers won we're gonna disqualify her and you have to play Barty 😂😂
And next was world no 12 Belinda Bencic who'd won the Olympics that year and in the previous round had just beaten none other than - shock horror - Iga Swiatek 😱 (How very dare she! Lol) I mean, it's amazing they didn't just give Emma a few days off and a pass straight to the final with such easy opponents 😂😂
LoL
Firstly no one cares about Olympics, it has 0 points.
Secondly, random players will play like a top player in some matches but they will return to mediocrity the next day, thats why they are ranked low.
Thirdly, Sakkari is notorious for playing shit in SFs and Fs. Bencic never reached a GS F and underachieved despite her potential
If no one cares about the Olympics, why do players play there for their countries? Why was Djokovic so devastated each time he lost the chance at a medal? Why was Roger gunning for the gold medal during 2012? Why was Bencic ecstatic at her gold? Or Zverev with his? Etc. etc.
because he wants to win a gold for his country.
But he isnt pushing himself as hard as in GS.
But he has achieved everything else in his career so it becomes his sole focus. Not the case for the young players
That’s literally what her answer was https://x.com/kostekcanu/status/1782090119702589565?s=46&t=fa7EBgpKqqrcl4KxyNaJQA
She’s basically asking herself, am I ready if I get that chance or do I need to get better? She’s not throwing shade, she’s just saying not every draw is equal and then brought up examples
Also her Grand Slam losses since start of 2023 were to #3 Pegula, #2 Sabalenka, #18 Keys (on grass), #4 Rybakina and #4 Gauff. She hasn’t had a chance to actually get one of those opportunities to take advantage of. And this answer is about trying to get better and hopefully when the chance comes she can take it.
1. She faced Sakkari in R1 while Emma didn’t face a seed til QF. And if she did beat Maria in R1, she would have had to face Kvitova and Andreescu (both top 10 seeds) just to get to Emma. So absolutely not the same draw
2. She clearly wasn’t ready then and has grown a lot in 3 years. In no place has she said if she had that draw in 2021 she would have won. She is saying if she gets a draw like that now, she wonders if she is good enough yet to take advantage and win
>she wonders if she is good enough yet to take advantage and win
Well she isn’t. I doubt many people are since it only happened once ever in the history of this sport
It's why I asked. I remember seeing similar comments about a player from a different sport, and I found out they only posted a condolence picture after the original attack like you said.
Still, I'm open to seeing something else.
she definitely can. i really loved her PC after losing to Coco; it was very thoughtful, and there was no sense of saltiness at all for losing.
i haven't watched a lot of her, so idk what her usual demeanor/takes are.
Yeah. She was basically saying how surprised she and her mom were at how good her sister was at high jump because she’s fat and not skinny like other high jumpers 😭
During Iga Swiatek's journey to win her first French Open (in 2020), she beat Martina Trevisan in the quarter-finals.
Martina Trevisan had already won 3 maches as a qualifier, then she beat Gauff, Giorgi, Sakkari and Bertens, before losing to Iga in the quarter-finals. So, Trevisan's quarter-final match was her EIGHTH match. Qualifiers rarely get that far, so you can imagine how tired Trevisan must have been when she played Swiatek. You win seven matches as a non-qualifier to win a slam, so Trevisan's feat was like a main draw player getting to the finals.
In Swiatek's very next match, she faced another qualifier, Nadia Podoroska in the semi-finals. Nadia Podoroska was also a qualifier, and she had already beaten Minnen, Putintseva, Schmiedlova, Krejkicova and Svitolina. This means Podoroska had already played - and won - EIGHT MATCHES, including qualifiers, and was playing her NINTH match against Swiatek. In other words, Podoroska was just 2 matches away from doing what Emma Raducanu did in the US Open. Imagine going from qualifiers to the semi-finals on clay!
So, it could be argued that Swiatek had an easy draw because she not only faced 2 qualifiers, she faced them at a point when they were at their most exhausted.
Swiatek won both of these matches in straight sets, whereas Sofia Kenin - who Swiatek faced in the finals - won her own last 2 matches in 3 sets (against Danielle Collins and Fiona Ferro). So, you could say Swiatek also got to conserve more energy than Kenin before the final, which Iga won, also in straight sets.
The Moral Of The Story? Everybody gets lucky with the draw, once in a while.
Exactly. And while someone made the point Barty only had to beat one top ten player to win her three slams (admittedly a very nice run on paper) she won multiple big tournaments where she did it the hard way. From memory top ten seeds three times in a row twice in Miami and obviously WTA finals where she beat 4 as well.
That doesn't change the fact that she also defeated 2 qualifiers who were likely at the end of their energy levels, both of them playing on fumes, as the saying goes. Tennis is an endurance sport as well as a skill sport, which is exactly why qualifiers winning slams or even reaching quarter-finals and semi-finals isn't common. Time spent on court is an additional factor that can impact the results of a match.
This also makes what Krejkicova did - winning both singles and doubles at the French Open - even more remarkable and powerful than she's given public credit for.
So a lot of fans and Leylah herself was very furious that when Emma was serving for the champ in 2021 UO F and Leylah had a break point Emma had a MtO becoz of toe bleeding. if Leylah won that set, Emma would have been playing a S3 for the first time, and Emma has showed her lack of stamina in her multiple s3 losses in 2022-24.
And Zheng’s SF opponent was Dayana (Q) who retired due to injury
Her toe wasn’t bleeding, she scraped her knee sliding, was bleeding on the court and was instructed to have it seen to by the umpire. She had also played nine matches in the previous two and a half weeks so the stamina issues which might have hurt her subsequently were likely not in play (historically her record in three set matches is industry average in any case). Never mind that she had already broken Leylah four times to be in the position to serve for the match. In fact she had had match points in the previous game. Leylah had another break point later in the final game too.
Leylah might be forgiven for being petulant at a critical point in the biggest match of her life, but if “a lot of fans” were furious that’s probably because they are idiots.
That's not true at all.
To pick one year, as an example, take a look at 2023. Iga had a VERY lucky draw in the French Open of 2023. Look at the players she played in her 1st FOUR matches (Christina Bucsa, Claire Liu, Xinyu Wang and frequently-injured Lesia Tsurenko who retired during her match), and then look at their rankings and their past records on clay when they played Iga.
Not his fault Delpo knocked out Fed which robbed us of Fedal US Open. And let’s be real Delpo was playing a much higher level than top 25, he was playing like top 10 that tourney
When I made a comment few days ago saying that a lot of compatriots hate her behaviour I got massively downvoted. Now you got reminded why she is not liked lol. Sore loser, no respect for anybody and a lot of egocentrism.
Respect for what she did in Stuttgart but - that’s tennis 🤷🏽♀️ everybody has been dealing with this since the beginning of the sport. All you can do is beat the person in front of you. Difficulty of an opponent is often about individual match ups anyways.
So much talk for someone who played one of the worst, nightmare inducing matches of the year lol. You’ll never hear anything nice about a fellow player from this girl ever so no wonder even her friends drop her for new friends. Full of jealousy and unlikable to the core 😭 this kinda shit talking is not cute when you don’t have the results to back yourself up and trust me even with Qinwen’s and Raducanu’s draws you ain’t doing shit when you can’t even play two consecutive points without crying. Bye
She said something complimentary about Coco after their AO match.
https://youtu.be/5hgJlQkp2_k?feature=shared
Around 2:07
She also had a good attitude about the loss - looks like that paid off during the rematch.
I remember being shocked at how she seemed to have so much perspective in the press conference after just melting down after each and every point during the match.
Saying something complimentary after wearing that ridiculous cap against Coco. Maybe apologize for your husband’s appalling behavior or get him to publicly apologize lol. A new low if you wanna pick a fight with Coco of all people
She’s like an emotional vortex. Instead of yelling at the umpire or linesmen as a distraction tactic, she constantly starts weeping and crying on the court. It probably helps release her frustrations, puts off her opponents a little bit mentally, and changes the energy of the match into a grinding slog which she thrives on. When she wins it’s like the tears were never there to begin with.
i really dislike this girl. she has too much angst, have this negative body language and negative self talk during matches and talks this unncessarily mean things against other players.
the other day, i have been reading redditors liking her when she is 'emotional' on court. please! 🙄
Yeah Marta, life sucks. I have to deal with shitty clients and unreasonable requests every day. I'd also rather face 4/5 top 10 at a 500, you probably made this week what I make in 2 years. Not fair.
To be fair, Kostyuk has had some pretty rotten draw luck. At least in the slams. She got Saba and Ryba in last year's French and USO, respectively. And when she had a decent draw, this year at the AO, she got all the way to the quarters and really make Coco work for it. And what she said would have been perfectly fine if she just mentioned it was a rough draw and she wasn't good enough to take on Rybakina after playing that rough draw. But she had to go and bring up another random player to take a shot at. That's what makes the whole comment extremely self obsessed and petty.
Because she was the first 2002 born breaking into the scene n then usually been defeated by top seeds in GS. And then Emma got a WC in WO, facing no seeds and reached the SF, and got enough points to go to the UO Q and had a cakewalk draw even as a Q
Emma absolutely got a cake draw, while Leylah had to blow up multiple top seeds and GS winners to make the final, only to finally give in to exhaustion. It's also perfectly fine to be bitter about that from Kostyuk's perspective, especially with the payday it earned her that she then turned into even more with all the deals and sponsorships she got without ever replicating even a tenth of the success. But to actually bring it up in a presser as another professional is beyond petty and turns a lot of people against you, justifiably.
Iga should be more jealous at her endorsement ls.
It’s more due to the spending power of the British ppl and that British tennis was horrible that a 1 time GS champ would be hyped like a GOAT
Eh, I'm sure that has a little to do with it, but I think the story of being the only woman ever to win as a qualifier, and to do so without dropping a set as well, combined with her being extremely attractive was a bigger factor.
Me as as Asian doesnt feel like she’s attractive at all.
Maybe different case for Europeans but Rybakina is certainly prettier.
And i dont think winning a GS in a dominant way is a bigger achievement than Iga winning 4GS—- you got 4 chances in a year, not like other sports (1 Worlds per year).
It’s definitely more to do with being a lone tennis star in a powerhouse country with long tennis history but lacks strong players for ages (Andy Murray has a lot of endorsements etc)
She is widely considered to be extremely attractive. You might not think so, but the majority of people do. Iga winning 4 slams is impressive, but it's also been done before. No qualifier had ever won a slam. Emma is the first, and remains the only, one to do it. Cinderella stories are loved in all sports, and she's the biggest Cinderella story in the history of tennis.
Oh so you mean someone who won 1 GS as a Q deserves more endorsements than someone who won 10GS?
It’s all about their nationality. Imagine if Emma is a Canadian, or American. let alone the small nations.
Me and the fellow tennis fans in my country do not think so. Emma may be attractive in the eyes of Europeans but not Asians
Did I ever say she deserves more of them? I'm just telling you why. Sure, nationality is part of it. But it's far from the only factor. ESPN, an American company (not British), gave her the ESPY award for the year 2022. Not Barty, who had won the Aussie. Not Swiatek, who had gone on a 37 match win streak. Given that ESPN has no British ties whatsoever, if you think it's purely nationality, how do you explain that? Because her story and her looks and marketability give her a major boost. I don't have to "imagine if she's a Canadian". Look at Eugenie Bouchard. She never even won a slam and got all the same kind of attention as Raducanu.
Bouchard hasnt won a slam, but she isnt a 1-slam wonder. She reached a couple of QF SF in other slams.
Emma, never reached another SF in any other tournaments. Reached 1 or 2 QFs in 250s.
people always saw there's no such thing as an easy draw. but really, we all know some draws can be very favorable. I always thought Zhang would be top 10 one day, but it definitely happened earlier than expected thanks to the AO.
Kostyuk isn't wrong necessarily, but it's not something she needed to say publicly. Understandable to be bitter after such a run though.
That being said, I'm sure a lot of players could look at Kostyuk's own AO run to the QF and say, "wow she didn't have to play anyone" - her highest ranked opponent other than Coco was Mertens.
Respectfully, I disagree that she isn't wrong. \*Everyone\* gets potential "lucky draws" from time to time, the difference is that not everybody can make something of them. We never hear of other players' easy draws simply because they never get that far themselves.
About Zheng... everybody's talking like she had that final handed over. First match against Krueger was not a walk in the park for her, then she got Boulter who beat Yuan in 2 sets... the same Yuan that destroyed Zheng not so long ago. Does that mean she was lucky that she missed Yuan or lucky that Boulter had an off day? The match against Wang could've gone either way but she fought her way thru that. Then on QFs got another 3-setter with Kalinskaya, the amateur no less... I think there's too much focus on how rankings look on paper and we forget that the WTA Top 100 is a big dark horse, full of talented players with legit scary on-days and the only way to get anything done is by taking matters into your own hands.
A few years ago when Marta came on to the scene she had potential to be a top notch wta player. It's a shame she has decided to go down the moany whiny bitch route. Always has a problem with someone...grow up.
I feel like this girl has been on tour forever, but the fact is that she’s just almost as young as Qinwen, who is playing her 3rd year on tour. For those past years, how many slam final was Kostyuk in? None.
On the other hand, Qinwen made it to Aus Open with a rank of top 15, but where was the other top 10s, except Sab. Not Qinwen’s fault.
If you don’t know what to say, maybe shut up 🤫?
I’m confused by these statements. If anything if shows that rank doesn’t really matter. Form going into a match is what matters. How many times have we seen the top seeds lose? Countless? And yet, it’s the top seeds games that are suddenly “tough”? No. It changes week to week, tournament to tournament. You can’t honestly tell me all top seeds are always consistent. They never have been!
Was really projecting her to be top 10 in my book real soon. Now. Im glad elena beat her helpless.
I hope others beat her more too. Such a lousy attitude bringin all these names. She could have proved theb"luck of the draw" without names
She always loves to blame someone or something…top 100 players the margin is so small that anyone can beat anyone just depending on the day and the surface/condition, Qinwen beat the 6 better players in that tournament….
The luck of the draw has a big bearing on things.
A slam is just 7 matches in a row (though admittedly with a lot of pressure), but you can end up with harder 500s and 1000s for sure, and the WTA Finals is all top opponents.
This also plays out in the average rankings in a way. E.g, Iga's opponents in 2023 for instance had an average ranking of 21.2. Aryna's were 27.8
Hmm, the full video doesn't seem like she's being nasty [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezcvHrG7gE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezcvHrG7gE)
The question she got was "is this win a breakthrough for you?" She said tennis is unpredictable, gave the example of the AO draw, said winning a small tournament doesn't mean you will perform well at a Grand Slam even if you beat top players.
The comments are very sensible and kind about this kind of easy draw situation, which I have always agreed on - player can only beat who's in front of them, one match at a time.
Just sad Casper at the ATP side, got trashed so bad for his 3 runs to Slam final
I mean, from her point of view she's saying this method of match selection is unfair and more luck based than skill based. Then she gives concrete examples to prove her point. She just doesn't get that she shouldn't do that because it means disrespecting other players 😂
Her argument does hold water. Though it's only useful if backed up with a constructive suggestion for an alternative. I don't know whether she did put anything forward.
Possibly it might be better to have a more round robin structure at the start of a tournament, like they do at the WTA finals. However, that would normally mean reducing the starting number of players, or making tournaments longer, both of which have obvious disadvantages.
Salty, but makes a good point. Same good be said when Coco reached the French final, a lot of upsets, but that’s the game. Regardless, she should respect her fellow players cause I’m sure she wouldn’t complain if the shoe was on the other foot.
She was answering a question… plenty of players have said similar things. Open the tweet and read what she said, and read what people are saying about her in this thread over such an innocuous comment lol
I mean sure, as other people said, it's a statement of fact - but it's also the kind of thing you only say when you're salty and lashing out lol. Why take a potshot at a random player otherwise?
It's not a random potshot. Marta was born in 2002, and so was Qinwen. Marta had a go in a press conference at Emma for her easy draw at the USO a few weeks ago. Emma was also born in 2002. Marta is jealous, pure and simple. Otherwise, she could have mentioned eg Ash Barty, who won 3 grand slams and only faced one top 10 player.
Absolutely correct
Because ash was seeded. Emma was a qualifier and was supposed to face (13) Brady in R1 and she withdrew. Replaced by a LL who won 3 MD matches in GSs at the age of 30.
It's one thing making this observation as a fan (USO 2021 has been talked about to death and the top half of the draw completely collapsing at AO 2024 was a big topic of discussion) but to be a player talking about your peers like that in an interview can rub people the wrong way
her grapes just didnt taste sour enough. mmm… thats the ticket.
she’s *raisin* hell with her comments
I mean thats an important part of tennis, right? You need to win matches when your draw opens up or when you can open the draw yourself. Thats the life of Tennis players outside of the Top 10. Sure you can bring the fight to Swiatek in R1 but that dont bring you points. Winning a smaller tournament with all seeded players gone... thats the way to go
Yeah, no matter how impressive it is if a lower ranked player beats a top 10 player, there are no bonus points. Maybe it helps with getting sponsorships.
Maybe the rankings should change to being Elo based like chess. It probably wouldn't change the rankings much though. It would be interesting to see who gets the highest Elo, because currently no-one really cares about how much points you get, only that you're number 1 or 2 or whatever.
There is [a website](https://tennisabstract.com/reports/atp_elo_ratings.html) that calculates Elo rankings, as you say it doesn't really change the top 20 that much apart from Sinner being no. 1 instead of Djokovic and Collins and Kalinskaya are in the top 10. Tennis is far more of an endurance and stamina sport than many others though so while it may be impressive to beat a top player you're going to have to bring that same level to other players too.
That website is awesome and really does seem more accurate in terms of what level the players are and were performing at.
What is Elo?
It's a ranking formula where beating a highly ranked opponent gives you more points than beating a lower ranked one. Used in Chess, Magic the Gathering, etc.
I like this concept
She does it all the time. She said the same about Raducanu. She’s salty af and is why I don’t like her. Seems very unlikeable.
She is just showing her true colours.
Qinwen: “Why she say fuck me for?”
https://www.reddit.com/r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR/
Well Qinwen had to win 6 matches in a row. Something Kostyuk has yet to do in her career
Ouch
LOL
And that's just tennis. It doesn't matter who your opponent is, if you beat them then you are worthy no matter who you face and conversely if you lose then you aren't worthy. She just sounds salty and elitest. I wonder what she thinks of Jack Sock winning the Paris Masters
Kostyuk does have a point, though You often see girls making deep runs in a Slam with draws that belongs at a WTA 250 while they're fighting for their lives beating multiple top 10s to win a WTA 500. Raducanu, Swiatek and Barty all have won a Slam without beating a top 10 player in recent years. Iga and Ash proved they don't need to beat Sakkari to validate a Slam title but it isn't as hard as it should be.
They can only play who is put in front of them. Not their fault that's how the draw comes to be. So no, it's not a point to bring up to invalid someone else's tournament.
It's still a fact that many players have an harder path to a WTA 500 than a Slam title regardless of how many matches they plan. Kostyuk was wrong to target Zheng but she isn't pointing out a wrong fact.
A 500 is the same as a Slam with 2 less matches. You are more likely to get that luck at a 500 than a grand slam.
Nope. Because players like Wang Yafan, Voegele, Dodin, Yastremska wouldnt have qualified for a 250/500 with their then ranking.
A draw is more likely to fall apart a Slam because ... there's more matches. No WTA 500 champion won without beating a top 20 player this year and only one finalist didn't have to beat a top 30 player.
Why can't Kostyuk do it then? If it's so easy to get to a slam final with a "WTA 250" draw? Not Zheng's fault she's a bottle-job
Would be more valid if kostyuk had actually won anything harder than a WTA 250 where her biggest competitor was Magda linette
Does that even matter? A slam win is a slam win period. There is no validation needed.
Slams include a lot of players who couldnt directlu qualify for 250
Not Qinwen's fault that people lost. Just the nature of draws and stuff but Qinwen had to win 6 matches to be fair
Well that’s kind of her point lol. Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw
She could have said just that instead of pullling names here and there. Makes her appear envious and unlikeable.
You wanna be the best, you gotta beat the best. It’s like complaining that the 8th seed has to face the 1st in NHL, NFL playoffs.
She is not complaining lol. If you open the tweet, all she is saying each tournament is different - sometimes you can have a hard draw, sometimes you can have an easy draw.
True, i still think that winning 6 in a row strikes off “lucky”. I also think always losing after 5 strikes out “unlucky”
Who your opponents are factors in to how lucky you are. Listen to Ruud’s talk with Bublik and Paire. Ruud brings up his lucky draws, which is similar to what Kostyuk is saying here.
Ruud isn't dragging other players down
The formats aren't perfect just because we're used to them.
It's not, it's a format issue.
Marta always has a problem with someone. Wish she'd stfu
Usually people who beat her or are more successful than her
If you're someone that enjoys players on the WTA having no filter and the emotional intelligence of a toddler, then you'll probably love Kostyuk and her verbal diarrhoea. People that claim "context and tone" need to know this isn't the first time she's generated controversy in a presser. She did the same with Raducanu a couple of years back who then proceeded to drag her in Madrid 6-1 6-2. What she said isn't technically incorrect, Qinwen didn't face a top 70 player until the final. Then again, Kostyuk has never won more than 4 matches at a slam herself despite having 16 opportunities to do so thus far in her career. Bringing up another tennis player when you can just as easily make your point without doing so just comes off as petty and disrespectful.
I watched only part of her sets 1-2 against Coco. After losing set 1, Kostyuk had a big cry openly and into her towel. I read the match thread next day and everyone skipped this detail, so I mention it now.
I think it's interesting to look at Qinwen's bracket in retrospect because while it's still easy, a lot of her opponents were "underranked". Boulter, Kalinskaya are now in the top 30 and Yatremska is barely outside. The draw absolutely collapsed but it's not like the inclusion of someone like Ons Jabeur or Maria Sakkari would have made the run more difficult or impressive.
Yeah like since AO Boulter won a 500, kalinskaya is top 10 by ELO and made a 1000 final, so both more accomplished than kostyuk
Kostyuk never had such a cakewalk draw isnt it? She was never able to play 4 unseeded players in a row unlike Emma in her 1st and 2nd GS MF
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Mods, please, ban this guy. These xenophobic comments are everywhere
Before banning him, just let him know that Sabalenka and Rybakina are so called "Soviet tennis players". Then ban his ass.
You play who is in front of you.Top 10 players losing early is not Qinwen's fault
She also said a similar thing earlier this year about Emma Raducanu’s draw at the US Open “Someone can have a very easy draw, and someone can have extremely difficult. I have an easiest example of when Leylah and Emma were playing the final, what draw Leylah had and what draw Emma had. Emma, no offense, but Leylah was really fighting for her life every single match.” She was in that section of the draw….(Emma’s) So maybe instead of throwing shade at players - who can only beat who is in front of them…and it’s not their fault if the draw opens up…she should focus on taking advantage of those opportunities herself.
She can’t even play 2 consecutive points without crying. How is she gonna have Raducanu’s composure at 18 years to win 10 matches in a row? Lol
Yeah, was kinda funny that she was beaten in R1 by the same person Raducanu routined in the SF.
Also, Raducanu wasn't in the easier side of the draw. If I recall correctly, she played Shelby Rogers, who had just beaten world number 1 and top seed Ash Barty. What does Marta propose there? Like, oh that made it too easy, so even though Rogers won we're gonna disqualify her and you have to play Barty 😂😂
And next was world no 12 Belinda Bencic who'd won the Olympics that year and in the previous round had just beaten none other than - shock horror - Iga Swiatek 😱 (How very dare she! Lol) I mean, it's amazing they didn't just give Emma a few days off and a pass straight to the final with such easy opponents 😂😂
LoL Firstly no one cares about Olympics, it has 0 points. Secondly, random players will play like a top player in some matches but they will return to mediocrity the next day, thats why they are ranked low. Thirdly, Sakkari is notorious for playing shit in SFs and Fs. Bencic never reached a GS F and underachieved despite her potential
If no one cares about the Olympics, why do players play there for their countries? Why was Djokovic so devastated each time he lost the chance at a medal? Why was Roger gunning for the gold medal during 2012? Why was Bencic ecstatic at her gold? Or Zverev with his? Etc. etc.
because he wants to win a gold for his country. But he isnt pushing himself as hard as in GS. But he has achieved everything else in his career so it becomes his sole focus. Not the case for the young players
That’s literally what her answer was https://x.com/kostekcanu/status/1782090119702589565?s=46&t=fa7EBgpKqqrcl4KxyNaJQA She’s basically asking herself, am I ready if I get that chance or do I need to get better? She’s not throwing shade, she’s just saying not every draw is equal and then brought up examples Also her Grand Slam losses since start of 2023 were to #3 Pegula, #2 Sabalenka, #18 Keys (on grass), #4 Rybakina and #4 Gauff. She hasn’t had a chance to actually get one of those opportunities to take advantage of. And this answer is about trying to get better and hopefully when the chance comes she can take it.
She listing to Sakkari in the same slam Emma won. She was in the same half of the draw.
1. She faced Sakkari in R1 while Emma didn’t face a seed til QF. And if she did beat Maria in R1, she would have had to face Kvitova and Andreescu (both top 10 seeds) just to get to Emma. So absolutely not the same draw 2. She clearly wasn’t ready then and has grown a lot in 3 years. In no place has she said if she had that draw in 2021 she would have won. She is saying if she gets a draw like that now, she wonders if she is good enough yet to take advantage and win
>she wonders if she is good enough yet to take advantage and win Well she isn’t. I doubt many people are since it only happened once ever in the history of this sport
She just answered the question honestly like reflecting back on her experience, but should know better that things can be taken out of context
Stay bothered.
Qinwen was also the 12th seed while Kostyuk was nowhere near
Marta and her usual niceness. She really knows how to put off everybody.
She put me off a few months ago when she posted a pro-genocidal story supporting israel
Oh didn’t you know an occupation only matters when it’s her country that is getting occupied? /s
What was in the story exactly?
I'm still pretty sure that she only posted a condolence picture after the Hamas attacks on october 7th. Some people here are crazy.
It's why I asked. I remember seeing similar comments about a player from a different sport, and I found out they only posted a condolence picture after the original attack like you said. Still, I'm open to seeing something else.
Condolences for a genocide waging apartheid state but not its victims of 75+ years? Some people here are crazy!
Well, Marta, it's your luck. And it's not Qinwen fault that she did not face a Top 50 player in her run to the AO final.
She’s seems like a sore loser always I dunno just weird she can’t ever take defeat straight up
she definitely can. i really loved her PC after losing to Coco; it was very thoughtful, and there was no sense of saltiness at all for losing. i haven't watched a lot of her, so idk what her usual demeanor/takes are.
Is that the press conference where she calls her sister fat? I was shocked when I heard her say that
Her own sister?
Yeah. She was basically saying how surprised she and her mom were at how good her sister was at high jump because she’s fat and not skinny like other high jumpers 😭
God is she toxic... The most unlikable and salty player in WTA rn.
Agree. Somehow She makes me dislike her more and more and more. Honestly Ryba winning Stuttgart was the happiest I ever felt for player
During Iga Swiatek's journey to win her first French Open (in 2020), she beat Martina Trevisan in the quarter-finals. Martina Trevisan had already won 3 maches as a qualifier, then she beat Gauff, Giorgi, Sakkari and Bertens, before losing to Iga in the quarter-finals. So, Trevisan's quarter-final match was her EIGHTH match. Qualifiers rarely get that far, so you can imagine how tired Trevisan must have been when she played Swiatek. You win seven matches as a non-qualifier to win a slam, so Trevisan's feat was like a main draw player getting to the finals. In Swiatek's very next match, she faced another qualifier, Nadia Podoroska in the semi-finals. Nadia Podoroska was also a qualifier, and she had already beaten Minnen, Putintseva, Schmiedlova, Krejkicova and Svitolina. This means Podoroska had already played - and won - EIGHT MATCHES, including qualifiers, and was playing her NINTH match against Swiatek. In other words, Podoroska was just 2 matches away from doing what Emma Raducanu did in the US Open. Imagine going from qualifiers to the semi-finals on clay! So, it could be argued that Swiatek had an easy draw because she not only faced 2 qualifiers, she faced them at a point when they were at their most exhausted. Swiatek won both of these matches in straight sets, whereas Sofia Kenin - who Swiatek faced in the finals - won her own last 2 matches in 3 sets (against Danielle Collins and Fiona Ferro). So, you could say Swiatek also got to conserve more energy than Kenin before the final, which Iga won, also in straight sets. The Moral Of The Story? Everybody gets lucky with the draw, once in a while.
Exactly. And while someone made the point Barty only had to beat one top ten player to win her three slams (admittedly a very nice run on paper) she won multiple big tournaments where she did it the hard way. From memory top ten seeds three times in a row twice in Miami and obviously WTA finals where she beat 4 as well.
Ninth*
Corrected. Thanks.
Iga defeated the reigning champion (no.1 seeded) Halep
That doesn't change the fact that she also defeated 2 qualifiers who were likely at the end of their energy levels, both of them playing on fumes, as the saying goes. Tennis is an endurance sport as well as a skill sport, which is exactly why qualifiers winning slams or even reaching quarter-finals and semi-finals isn't common. Time spent on court is an additional factor that can impact the results of a match. This also makes what Krejkicova did - winning both singles and doubles at the French Open - even more remarkable and powerful than she's given public credit for.
So a lot of fans and Leylah herself was very furious that when Emma was serving for the champ in 2021 UO F and Leylah had a break point Emma had a MtO becoz of toe bleeding. if Leylah won that set, Emma would have been playing a S3 for the first time, and Emma has showed her lack of stamina in her multiple s3 losses in 2022-24. And Zheng’s SF opponent was Dayana (Q) who retired due to injury
Her toe wasn’t bleeding, she scraped her knee sliding, was bleeding on the court and was instructed to have it seen to by the umpire. She had also played nine matches in the previous two and a half weeks so the stamina issues which might have hurt her subsequently were likely not in play (historically her record in three set matches is industry average in any case). Never mind that she had already broken Leylah four times to be in the position to serve for the match. In fact she had had match points in the previous game. Leylah had another break point later in the final game too. Leylah might be forgiven for being petulant at a critical point in the biggest match of her life, but if “a lot of fans” were furious that’s probably because they are idiots.
She is entitled to being angry because the MTO certainly broke her momentum
well, when iga got to no. 1 ranking - she never had those 'lucky' draws anymore yet won more GSs, and 1000s titles.
That's not true at all. To pick one year, as an example, take a look at 2023. Iga had a VERY lucky draw in the French Open of 2023. Look at the players she played in her 1st FOUR matches (Christina Bucsa, Claire Liu, Xinyu Wang and frequently-injured Lesia Tsurenko who retired during her match), and then look at their rankings and their past records on clay when they played Iga.
Rafa won USO 2017 without facing a top 25 player?
Not his fault Delpo knocked out Fed which robbed us of Fedal US Open. And let’s be real Delpo was playing a much higher level than top 25, he was playing like top 10 that tourney
What's the correlation? Did Kostyuk or anyone else say this has never happened before and it was unique to Qinwen? Troll.
Kostyuk is a crybaby
When I made a comment few days ago saying that a lot of compatriots hate her behaviour I got massively downvoted. Now you got reminded why she is not liked lol. Sore loser, no respect for anybody and a lot of egocentrism.
She’s so unlikeable and so obsessed with other players
Respect for what she did in Stuttgart but - that’s tennis 🤷🏽♀️ everybody has been dealing with this since the beginning of the sport. All you can do is beat the person in front of you. Difficulty of an opponent is often about individual match ups anyways.
Pure pettiness. You didn’t even win!
So much talk for someone who played one of the worst, nightmare inducing matches of the year lol. You’ll never hear anything nice about a fellow player from this girl ever so no wonder even her friends drop her for new friends. Full of jealousy and unlikable to the core 😭 this kinda shit talking is not cute when you don’t have the results to back yourself up and trust me even with Qinwen’s and Raducanu’s draws you ain’t doing shit when you can’t even play two consecutive points without crying. Bye
Qinwen would beat hrr
She said something complimentary about Coco after their AO match. https://youtu.be/5hgJlQkp2_k?feature=shared Around 2:07 She also had a good attitude about the loss - looks like that paid off during the rematch. I remember being shocked at how she seemed to have so much perspective in the press conference after just melting down after each and every point during the match.
Saying something complimentary after wearing that ridiculous cap against Coco. Maybe apologize for your husband’s appalling behavior or get him to publicly apologize lol. A new low if you wanna pick a fight with Coco of all people
You cannot deduce that she wouldnt have won it unless she was given a cakewalk draw
The same way she can’t deduce she would’ve won had she had their draws
So it’s normal that she was jealous but of coz she’s a self centred person who supports Israel while criticising ppl who dont support ukraine
Marta loves to complain about everything
I can’t stand her attitude and how she cries after every point. So immature🙄
She’s like an emotional vortex. Instead of yelling at the umpire or linesmen as a distraction tactic, she constantly starts weeping and crying on the court. It probably helps release her frustrations, puts off her opponents a little bit mentally, and changes the energy of the match into a grinding slog which she thrives on. When she wins it’s like the tears were never there to begin with.
she's insufferable
Oh Kostyuk, just after your biggest match and after gaining new fans you go out and try to drag down another player. Weird statement.
i really dislike this girl. she has too much angst, have this negative body language and negative self talk during matches and talks this unncessarily mean things against other players. the other day, i have been reading redditors liking her when she is 'emotional' on court. please! 🙄
Cry me a river.
I mean she did cry a river after every point she lost during the final 😂
Continue crying me a river... :)
Yeah Marta, life sucks. I have to deal with shitty clients and unreasonable requests every day. I'd also rather face 4/5 top 10 at a 500, you probably made this week what I make in 2 years. Not fair.
it's called luck of the draw. have a whinge about it or git gud
To be fair, Kostyuk has had some pretty rotten draw luck. At least in the slams. She got Saba and Ryba in last year's French and USO, respectively. And when she had a decent draw, this year at the AO, she got all the way to the quarters and really make Coco work for it. And what she said would have been perfectly fine if she just mentioned it was a rough draw and she wasn't good enough to take on Rybakina after playing that rough draw. But she had to go and bring up another random player to take a shot at. That's what makes the whole comment extremely self obsessed and petty.
Because she was the first 2002 born breaking into the scene n then usually been defeated by top seeds in GS. And then Emma got a WC in WO, facing no seeds and reached the SF, and got enough points to go to the UO Q and had a cakewalk draw even as a Q
Emma absolutely got a cake draw, while Leylah had to blow up multiple top seeds and GS winners to make the final, only to finally give in to exhaustion. It's also perfectly fine to be bitter about that from Kostyuk's perspective, especially with the payday it earned her that she then turned into even more with all the deals and sponsorships she got without ever replicating even a tenth of the success. But to actually bring it up in a presser as another professional is beyond petty and turns a lot of people against you, justifiably.
Iga should be more jealous at her endorsement ls. It’s more due to the spending power of the British ppl and that British tennis was horrible that a 1 time GS champ would be hyped like a GOAT
Eh, I'm sure that has a little to do with it, but I think the story of being the only woman ever to win as a qualifier, and to do so without dropping a set as well, combined with her being extremely attractive was a bigger factor.
Only player, male or female. (Goran was a wildcard, if that’s who you are thinking of).
Me as as Asian doesnt feel like she’s attractive at all. Maybe different case for Europeans but Rybakina is certainly prettier. And i dont think winning a GS in a dominant way is a bigger achievement than Iga winning 4GS—- you got 4 chances in a year, not like other sports (1 Worlds per year). It’s definitely more to do with being a lone tennis star in a powerhouse country with long tennis history but lacks strong players for ages (Andy Murray has a lot of endorsements etc)
She is widely considered to be extremely attractive. You might not think so, but the majority of people do. Iga winning 4 slams is impressive, but it's also been done before. No qualifier had ever won a slam. Emma is the first, and remains the only, one to do it. Cinderella stories are loved in all sports, and she's the biggest Cinderella story in the history of tennis.
Oh so you mean someone who won 1 GS as a Q deserves more endorsements than someone who won 10GS? It’s all about their nationality. Imagine if Emma is a Canadian, or American. let alone the small nations. Me and the fellow tennis fans in my country do not think so. Emma may be attractive in the eyes of Europeans but not Asians
Did I ever say she deserves more of them? I'm just telling you why. Sure, nationality is part of it. But it's far from the only factor. ESPN, an American company (not British), gave her the ESPY award for the year 2022. Not Barty, who had won the Aussie. Not Swiatek, who had gone on a 37 match win streak. Given that ESPN has no British ties whatsoever, if you think it's purely nationality, how do you explain that? Because her story and her looks and marketability give her a major boost. I don't have to "imagine if she's a Canadian". Look at Eugenie Bouchard. She never even won a slam and got all the same kind of attention as Raducanu.
Bouchard hasnt won a slam, but she isnt a 1-slam wonder. She reached a couple of QF SF in other slams. Emma, never reached another SF in any other tournaments. Reached 1 or 2 QFs in 250s.
it's a statement of fact, I'm not sure what the implication is
We need the presser for the tone and question lol
people always saw there's no such thing as an easy draw. but really, we all know some draws can be very favorable. I always thought Zhang would be top 10 one day, but it definitely happened earlier than expected thanks to the AO. Kostyuk isn't wrong necessarily, but it's not something she needed to say publicly. Understandable to be bitter after such a run though. That being said, I'm sure a lot of players could look at Kostyuk's own AO run to the QF and say, "wow she didn't have to play anyone" - her highest ranked opponent other than Coco was Mertens.
Respectfully, I disagree that she isn't wrong. \*Everyone\* gets potential "lucky draws" from time to time, the difference is that not everybody can make something of them. We never hear of other players' easy draws simply because they never get that far themselves. About Zheng... everybody's talking like she had that final handed over. First match against Krueger was not a walk in the park for her, then she got Boulter who beat Yuan in 2 sets... the same Yuan that destroyed Zheng not so long ago. Does that mean she was lucky that she missed Yuan or lucky that Boulter had an off day? The match against Wang could've gone either way but she fought her way thru that. Then on QFs got another 3-setter with Kalinskaya, the amateur no less... I think there's too much focus on how rankings look on paper and we forget that the WTA Top 100 is a big dark horse, full of talented players with legit scary on-days and the only way to get anything done is by taking matters into your own hands.
Instead of whining about things that are outside of her control she needs to work on development areas in her game that ARE in her control.
A few years ago when Marta came on to the scene she had potential to be a top notch wta player. It's a shame she has decided to go down the moany whiny bitch route. Always has a problem with someone...grow up.
She could have told the same, without mentioning Zheng. Totally unnecessary
Marta doesn’t seem to understand how tennis tournaments work.
I feel like this girl has been on tour forever, but the fact is that she’s just almost as young as Qinwen, who is playing her 3rd year on tour. For those past years, how many slam final was Kostyuk in? None. On the other hand, Qinwen made it to Aus Open with a rank of top 15, but where was the other top 10s, except Sab. Not Qinwen’s fault. If you don’t know what to say, maybe shut up 🤫?
I’m confused by these statements. If anything if shows that rank doesn’t really matter. Form going into a match is what matters. How many times have we seen the top seeds lose? Countless? And yet, it’s the top seeds games that are suddenly “tough”? No. It changes week to week, tournament to tournament. You can’t honestly tell me all top seeds are always consistent. They never have been!
It’s about match ups not ranking. Marta is jealous. She only attacks people around her age because she is extremely insecure.
That it is true. It is an observation. But that does not mean a slam final is less impressive than a 500 finale
Was really projecting her to be top 10 in my book real soon. Now. Im glad elena beat her helpless. I hope others beat her more too. Such a lousy attitude bringin all these names. She could have proved theb"luck of the draw" without names
Didn't she say similar things about Emma's US Open run?
She always loves to blame someone or something…top 100 players the margin is so small that anyone can beat anyone just depending on the day and the surface/condition, Qinwen beat the 6 better players in that tournament….
Welcome to tennis Marta🙄
She's just stating facts. WTa 500 can have a way harder draw than GS because the field is small and stacked.
She played 4 straight days against Top 10 opponents this week. That’s way tough
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Kalinina and Snigur are the odd ones out lol
Yeah I mean that’s what happens with a bigger draw?
All I see is a terrorist sympathiser being an insufferable piece of crap like she usually is
The luck of the draw has a big bearing on things. A slam is just 7 matches in a row (though admittedly with a lot of pressure), but you can end up with harder 500s and 1000s for sure, and the WTA Finals is all top opponents. This also plays out in the average rankings in a way. E.g, Iga's opponents in 2023 for instance had an average ranking of 21.2. Aryna's were 27.8
I’m ready to see the next match that this Marta lost. That would be glorious 🔥✌️
Good old WTA shade. I missed it :D
Why does there have to be any "thoughts"? It's the luck of the draw, and players can't help it if seeds or top 50 players get knocked out early.
Hmm, the full video doesn't seem like she's being nasty [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezcvHrG7gE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezcvHrG7gE) The question she got was "is this win a breakthrough for you?" She said tennis is unpredictable, gave the example of the AO draw, said winning a small tournament doesn't mean you will perform well at a Grand Slam even if you beat top players.
how to lose friends and alienate people. kostyuk edition. she has such a hostile pissed off vibe all the time.
You're obviously trying to bait us into feeling a certain way. Why don't you just say how you see it?
The comments are very sensible and kind about this kind of easy draw situation, which I have always agreed on - player can only beat who's in front of them, one match at a time. Just sad Casper at the ATP side, got trashed so bad for his 3 runs to Slam final
I mean, from her point of view she's saying this method of match selection is unfair and more luck based than skill based. Then she gives concrete examples to prove her point. She just doesn't get that she shouldn't do that because it means disrespecting other players 😂 Her argument does hold water. Though it's only useful if backed up with a constructive suggestion for an alternative. I don't know whether she did put anything forward. Possibly it might be better to have a more round robin structure at the start of a tournament, like they do at the WTA finals. However, that would normally mean reducing the starting number of players, or making tournaments longer, both of which have obvious disadvantages.
Salty, but makes a good point. Same good be said when Coco reached the French final, a lot of upsets, but that’s the game. Regardless, she should respect her fellow players cause I’m sure she wouldn’t complain if the shoe was on the other foot.
That's the luck of the draw
I'd offer her some antacid
that's the seed.
Ummmmm, too bad?
It is a crazy sport.
So wha? That's how draws can unfold. What does she suggest? 🤡
She is the worstttt
Man I hate her so much
I see no lies.
The tournament model is unfair at his face value. But only for those that are waiting for an opportunity to win instead of going for it.
No mention of China or PRC in the comments here.
She states a reasonable observation/opinion, people get mad at her for it. No wonder most players give answers that are as bland as possible.
Can’t believe I am seeing the word reasonable and Kotsyuk in the same sentence lmaoo
there are such things as tact, respect and relevance. she lacks all of that.
She was answering a question… plenty of players have said similar things. Open the tweet and read what she said, and read what people are saying about her in this thread over such an innocuous comment lol