BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

January 10, 2026

Marta Kostyuk

Press Conference

M. KOSTYUK/J. Pegula

6-0, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Through to the final here in Brisbane. It's been an incredible past few days for you. Obviously you defeated three top-10 players. How were you feeling on court, and what's the motivation like?

MARTA KOSTYUK: Well, for sure, getting all these wins in straight sets, really feel comfortable in these matches. Yeah, just a great feeling. Not just for me but for my team. We have been doing a lot of work. You know, it's been rewarded this week. So I'm very happy and very excited for tomorrow's match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congratulations. That was an awesome performance. Was there any surprise, I guess, at just how dominant you were? Particularly in that first set, you turned away for five minutes to get a drink and it was over. It was an incredible display.

MARTA KOSTYUK: Yeah, I think it was also one of those days today when everything you touch turns into gold. Personally, I didn't have many matches like this in my career, especially against top-10 players. So, you know, it's a great present, I would say, a great bonus today to have such match, because, you know, it's not an easy conditions in Brisbane. It's very hot, very humid.

So, you know, at the end of the day you really try to stay as little as possible on the court, to be as fresh as possible. So I'm very happy that I managed to finish it in two sets today.

Q. Of course the confidence you get from beating three top-10 players, now it's No. 1 next. What are your thoughts about playing Aryna? How do you feel about playing her with this form that you're in?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I mean, she's the World No. 1, and she's achieved amazing things. She's very powerful player. You know, I'm very excited to go out there. I think it's a great test, a great match to have before a Grand Slam.

You know, to be in the position that I am, to be in the final, pressure is not on me. You know, I want to go out there and put on a good show for the crowd. The crowd has been amazing this week.

You know, I really have nothing to lose. So, you know, I just want to go out there and enjoy.

Q. Do you put limits on yourself for the Australian Open after having a week like this?

MARTA KOSTYUK: No. Why? Why would I? (Laughter.)

Yeah, I mean, Grand Slam is a different tournament, it's much longer, you play more matches, more players. But, you know, again, I'm coming back to the focus on things that I have to do rather than the outcome of, you know, winning or losing, because tennis never stops.

We always have tournaments. Of course Grand Slam is the biggest event we have in tennis. We have four of them a year. It's not Olympics that you get a chance once in four years (smiling).

So, you know, I think the pressure is really not that big at the end of the day. I'm still young. You know, I really just want to get better as a player and as a person, first of all.

So I, you know, I love to play in Australia. You know, it's going to be just another week of tennis for me (smiling).

Q. You had an interview last year where you were misquoted, and they put a question in that wasn't asked of you. There were some comments about Aryna. Did this create a difficult situation for you, given that it wasn't what you actually said and I'm sure not what you intended?

MARTA KOSTYUK: I think it has never happened to me before that I was misquoted, especially this much, especially talking about, you know, a different topic, I would say.

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

So it was sad, because I love to talk about different things. I love to give different perspective on different topics. Yeah, I mean, was not my responsibility that it happened, so of course it wasn't easy for me for some time, because yeah, I was misquoted big time, but other than that, I mean, people hear, people read in whichever way they want, and at the end of the day, I have nothing to do with it, so I'm fine.

Q. Is it something you had to address with Aryna or Iga?

MARTA KOSTYUK: No, because they posted the second article in a few days when it became pretty big. 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, I would say.

If I had said something wrong, I never have a problem to apologize 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.