Marta Kostyuk is making plenty of headlines in the tennis world, but they aren’t totally related to her play on the court.
That’s because the Ukrainian WTA player posed for Vogue Ukrainian as she prepares for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
The shoot shows the 21-year-old, along with other Ukrainian athletes like Anna Gontar, Zhang Beleniuk, Olga Kharlan and more, as they showcase their life away from sports.
In one of the pictures, Kostyuk is seen posing with her hands joined as she looks straight into the camera. The big talking point is that she is only wearing a pleated white short skirt, while her hair is tied up.
The 21-year-old has continued to impress on the court, achieving the highest ranking of her career this month, but her photoshoot hasn’t been met with the same sort of approval as her play as.
“Why do they need to be naked? pretty distasteful tbh,” wrote one disapproving fan on X.
“Marta is amazing… but I would prefer to see her in clothes.. a bit unnecessary to see the flesh,” wrote another fan.
A third wrote: “Why naked? unnecessary for an Olympic athlete.”
Kostyuk isn’t the first tennis player to show some skin in a photoshoot. Eugenie Bouchard was known for play on the court and her fashion sense, and she hit back at critics after one of her shoots.
“I mean, why stop myself? It was definitely part of who I am, because I think it’s great. Why keep myself in a box? Why stop myself from trying to be everything I can be?,” said Bouchard.
Maria Sharapova appeared in the 2006 Valentine’s Day issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, and she made it clear she was happy with her appearance.
“I love doing new things. Being in a bikini is very different, you don`t have a lot to work with, just your body and sand and water. But I got used to it,” she said.
