It is safe to say that Aryna Sabalenka isn’t a fan of the statements that Teodora Kostovic had made before their first-round clash at Wimbledon. Notably, the 19-year-old had insisted that Sabalenka wouldn’t find it easy to handle her power before the clash. But the World No. 1 had gone on to rack up a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 victory and had then taken a dig at her opponent’s pre-match confidence. Sabalenka has now doubled down on her previous remarks by mocking the young Serbian once again.

Kostovic’s comments were brought up again by the media after Sabalenka’s 6-1, 7-6 victory over McCartney Kessler in the second round. The World No. 1 certainly didn’t mince any words while talking about it.

“Me looking at this and then going to the match and seeing the reality, I think it was more like she was trying to trick herself and she was just trying to boost that self-belief that she actually didn’t have,” she said during the post-match press conference. “I don’t know. Sometimes it works. It always depends on the personality. Sometimes you have to really fake it till you make it. Sometimes you have to stay grounded and be real and work with what you have.”

Sabalenka appeared to be pretty serious with her words this time around. Her tone was pretty calm when she delivered her previous verdict over Kostovic’s statement two days ago.

“I just figured out after the match what she said,” Sabalenka had said in a press conference after her match against Kostovic. “I think she said she wants to see if I can handle her power (laughing) … so scary. It’s good that she has that self-belief.”

Sabalenka’s repetitive mockery of Kostovic has unsurprisingly not gone down well with the fans. They have come to the latter’s defense and have criticized the World No. 1 for unnecessarily making fun of a young player.

Fans left enraged with Aryna Sabalenka over her remarks about Teodora Kostovic

One of the fans asked Sabalenka to move on from Kostovic’s statement, as a lot of time has passed since their clash. “I’m a bit biased here because I got to know a bit of Teodora in those weeks she played in Portugal (and she is a lovely girl), but this all seems a bit too much. Also, her quotes were 5 days ago for god’s sake. Let’s move on lol.”

Another fan remarked that Sabalenka should be encouraging young players instead of mocking them. “She is world no. 1. She should be empowering female players and giving them confidence and instead – she is making fun of them calling them fake. What a shame. Worst no. 1 ever.”

There was another fan who expressed a similar sentiment over the matter and described Sabalenka’s comments as very disappointing. “Damn!!!! This’s so bad from her…this’s absolutely disappointing message from a supposed-to-be professional idol.”

One fan called out Sabalenka for unnecessarily making the issue bigger than it actually is. “Oh Aryna give us a break woman you won you’re World No 1. Relax… She’s 18. Literally let the kid be… it’s not that deep.”

It remains to be seen if Kostovic will release a statement of her own in the coming days in response to Sabalenka’s needless digs.