Aryna Sabalenka has brushed off claims that she is \u2018damaging\u2019 women\u2019s tennis by competing in a Battle of the Sexes-style exhibition with Nick Kyrgios.<\/p>\n
The pair are due to face off on December 28th<\/sup> in Dubai, with the clash having been subject to much discussion on social media.<\/p>\n The match seeks to emulate the 1973 battle between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which was watched by a television audience of over 90 million viewers \u2013 later being branded the \u2018Battle of the Sexes.\u2019<\/p>\n It was King who defeated the 55-year-old Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a result which was seen as a major step forward for women\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n However, ever since the clash was announced by the 2022 Wimbledon finalist in July, critics have argued that the event may distract from women\u2019s tennis rather than enhancing it.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t agree,\u201d commented the WTA world No 1 during an interview with BBC Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not putting myself at any risk. We\u2019re there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so obvious that the man is biologically stronger than the woman, but it\u2019s not about that.<\/p>\n \u201cThis event is only going to help bring women\u2019s tennis to a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabalenka<\/a> ended the 2025 season with a title at the US Open and a runner-up appearance at the WTA Finals in Riyadh (losing to Elena Rybakina).<\/p>\n As a result, the Belarusian secured her place as the year-end No 1 with a lead of nearly 2500 ranking points over world No 2 Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n Kyrgios, on the other hand, is currently ranked world No 672 after having only played five matches this season due to long-standing wrist pain.<\/p>\n To somewhat mitigate any biological differences, Sabalenka\u2019s side of the court will be nine percent smaller than the Australian\u2019s.<\/p>\n In addition, both players will only be able to utilise one serve in the best of three set match \u2013 decided by a 10-point tiebreak if the first two sets are split.<\/p>\n Nick Kyrgios accused of \u2018representing misogyny\u2019 in scathing Battle of the Sexes swipe<\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu\u2019s blockbuster first match of 2026 season revealed<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be an easy match for Nick,\u201d Sabalenka later added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to be there competing and showing women are strong, powerful and good entertainment.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s in a lose-lose situation. I\u2019m in a win-win situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyrgios hasn\u2019t played a professional singles match since losing to Karen Khachanov in the second round of the Miami Open, still seemingly affected by wrist pain which has plagued him since mid-2023.<\/p>\n In September of that season, he underwent full wrist-reconstruction surgery to repair a ruptured ligament.<\/p>\n More recently, Kyrgios played against Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul in the Garden Cup exhibition event, falling to both in competitive appearances.<\/p>\n \u201cTennis doesn\u2019t really have that (razzmatazz) that often and I think that when something like this occurs it is pretty special,\u201d said Kyrgios, who is no stranger to altered exhibition formats.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are helping tennis to grow,\u201d Sabalenka concluded, pushing back on criticism.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun, it\u2019s challenging and I think that\u2019s what people want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Aryna Sabalenka brushes off claims that she is \u2018damaging women\u2019s tennis\u2019 with Battle of the Sexes exhibition<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka has brushed off claims that she is \u2018damaging\u2019 women\u2019s tennis by competing in a Battle of the Sexes-style exhibition with Nick Kyrgios. The pair are due to face off on December 28th in Dubai, with the clash having been subject to much discussion on social media. The match seeks to emulate the 1973 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n