Billie Jean King won the most famous Battle of the Sexes, and the tennis icon has given her verdict on the controversial upcoming match of the same name between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios.<\/p>\n
WTA world No 1 Sabalenka<\/a> and former ATP world No 13 Kyrgios<\/a> will meet in a \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 exhibition match at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 28 December. It has been organised by Evolve, a sports agency founded by Naomi Osaka, which represents both Sabalenka and Kyrgios.<\/p>\n The contest will be best-of-three sets, with a 10-point match tiebreak used in place of a third set if required. Each player will be limited to using one serve.<\/p>\n Sabalenka\u2019s side of the court will be 9% smaller, with Evolve saying that data shows female players move about 9% slower than men on average.<\/p>\n The match has drawn criticism, with some expressing concerns that it could have a negative impact on women\u2019s tennis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sabalenka and Kyrgios\u2019 showdown will be the fourth match in tennis history billed as a \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019, with two of them having featured former American player Bobby Riggs in 1973.<\/p>\n Riggs, a Wimbledon and US Open champion, was 55 when he played two legends of women\u2019s tennis: Margaret Court and Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n He crushed a 30-year-old Court 6-2, 6-1 in May 1973 before losing 4-6, 3-6, 3-6 to a 29-year-old King four months later in what was by far the most prominent and significant \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match.<\/p>\n King\u2019s victory, which was watched by an estimated 90 million viewers worldwide, was seen by many as being hugely important for gender equality and women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n In 1992, 40-year-old Jimmy Connors defeated a 35-year-old Martina Navratilova 7-5, 6-2 in a third \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match played under hybrid rules.<\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka has put herself in the line of fire by accepting \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 showdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka brushes off claims that she is \u2018damaging women\u2019s tennis\u2019 with Battle of the Sexes exhibition<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Sport, King revealed she does not see many similarities between her Battle of the Sexes and the match between Sabalenka and Kyrgios.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only similarity is that one is a boy and one is a girl. That\u2019s it,\u201d said King, a winner of 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything else, no. Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it\u2019s a great match \u2014 I want Sabalenka, obviously, to win \u2014 but it\u2019s just not the same.<\/p>\n \u201cMine was really political. It was rough, culturally, what was coming in with it.\u00a0 I knew I had to beat him for societal change. I had a lot of reasons to win.\u201d<\/p>\n On whether the match could hurt women\u2019s tennis given Sabalenka\u2019s status as the world No 1, King said: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll have to ask her (Sabalenka) after she plays, but we have never said we are better than men \u2014 ever.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have talked about our entertainment value \u2014 sometimes a women\u2019s match ends up being better than a guy\u2019s match.<\/p>\n \u201cI get upset when people say, \u2018you think you are better.\u2019 We have never said that, never.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Aryna Sabalenka gives verdict on transgender women competing in tennis in interview alongside Nick Kyrgios<\/a> The post Billie Jean King asked if Sabalenka & Kyrgios\u2019 Battle of the Sexes could damage women\u2019s tennis<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Billie Jean King won the most famous Battle of the Sexes, and the tennis icon has given her verdict on the controversial upcoming match of the same name between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios. WTA world No 1 Sabalenka and former ATP world No 13 Kyrgios will meet in a \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 exhibition […]<\/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-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436","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=1436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Which previous matches have been labelled a \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n
What did Billie Jean King say about the Aryna Sabalenka-Nick Kyrgios Battle of the Sexes?<\/h2>\n
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