Talk about giving the people something that they didn’t want. Sunday’s ‘updated’ Battle of the Sexes match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios may go down as one of the most senseless exercises in recent sporting history.
A visibly unfit Nick Kyrgios won the match 6-3, 6-3. As a man, I didn’t get derive any pleasure from it. The whole event felt like a regressive step back for gender equality in tennis, spitting in the face of Billie Jean King in the process.
The OG Battle of the Sexes
For the uninitiated , Billie Jean King won the inaugural Battle of the Sexes, beating unapologetic chauvinistic pig Bobby Riggs back in 1973. And that’s the precise point. Back in 1973. That was a different time, female lib was still a foreign concept in the mainstream. King’s victory underlined the fact that woman can indeed go toe-to-toe with men. Also, Riggs was 55 at the time of that match. Kyrgios, despite his overall fitness levels, is still near the prime of his career. To have this ‘battle’ in 2025, after so much hard work has been accomplished, feels like a regressive rewriting of everything that came before.
Kyrgios got the most out of this
Regardless of who won the match: Kyrgios was always going to be the chief beneficiary of the contest. The 30-year-old Aussie has been an irrelevant presence in the game for the past few years, plummeting to a ranking of 671 in the world. Kyrgios has suffered with injuries and could use the media hype from this event to kickstart his 2026 campaign. Kyrgios didn’t look overly bothered during the proceedings, dismantling Sabalenka with little care for the occasion. Honestly, I’m tired of people trying to sell Kyrgios as some wayward genius. He was a super-talented player who never got the most out of his game. Why give a guy with a reputation for ‘tanking’ this kind of platform? What is it that we are celebrating here?
A better man would have sufficed
Also, Kyrgios’ controversial history with woman’s issues made him a decidedly unsuitable player for this gender-based event. Lest we forget, this is a guy who admitted assaulting his ex-girlfriend back in 2021. He has made sexist remarks over players such as Kalinskaya and Vekic and had to distance himself from Andrew Tate after reposting the proud misogynist. This is a result that could resonate with impressionable youth who are confronted with anti-feminine rhetoric. They may interpret his victory as some type of validation for Kyrgios’ own behaviours and beliefs.
Sabalenka scores the ultimate own-goal
What Sabalenka gained from this- outside of the obvious financial incentive- is completely unclear. She said that she has received great training ahead of the upcoming Aussie Open. Please. I don’t see how being beaten by a barely mobile player, ranked outside the top 600, is going to help your Grand Slam preparation. Did she genuinely think she could beat him? Clearly not if they decided to make her receiving area 9% smaller. Sabalenka claimed the event would ‘bring women’s tennis to a higher level’. I personally think she has opened her sport up to even more abuse.
Why risk exposing women’s tennis to antiquated questions about equality (especially in the aid of a fleeting viral moment)? Women’s tennis is already a highly watched and celebrated sport, often generating equal, if not more interest than the men’s game. What need is there to elevate it to another level? She has just given the more toxic members of our society a little more ammunition to wage their culture wars.
Why Dubai?
And lastly, we must take a moment to consider the venue for this farce: Dubai. Dubai, despite some recent reforms, still operates under the tenets of Sharia Law. So, having this battle of the sexes in a venue that celebrates patriarchal dominance is just a shocking look. And then you have the entire sportswashing aspect of it all. Just like with the Six Kings Slam a few months ago, these gaudy monstrosities are really a bunch of razzle-dazzle to make people forget all the human rights violations going on in the Middle East (the Six Kings Slam took place in Saudi Arabia). This was an embarrassing ‘spectacle’ that cheapened the strides made by tennis pioneers of the past.
