Aryna Sabalenka is confident she will be able to match Nick Kyrgios in their controversial Battle of the Sexes clash, but former world No 1 Garbine Muguruza has sent a stark warning when it comes to women facing men.<\/p>\n
The exhibition will be staged on December 28 in Dubai and it has received a lot of attention in recent weeks with many feeling it will be damaging to women\u2019s sport, but Sabalenka<\/a> begs to differ.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t agree,\u201d the four-time Grand Slam winner told BBC Sport<\/a>. \u201cI am not putting myself at any risk. We\u2019re there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \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 is currently ranked No 1 while Kyrgios<\/a> is outside the top 600 on the ATP Rankings and will likely be rusty as he has played very little tennis in recent years.<\/p>\n The best-of-three sets contest will also not be played under normal tennis rules as Sabalenka\u2019s side of the court will be nine per cent smaller, and each player will be limited to one serve.<\/p>\n While Sabalenka is confident about her chances, two-time Grand Slam winner Muguruza has given her honest assessment about facing male tennis players.<\/p>\n In an interview on El Partidazo de COPE, the Spaniard said: \u201cI\u2019ve had so many [male] hitting partners, and every time I had to play a practice set against them, I\u2019d end up super frustrated.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can it be that I can\u2019t win a set against someone who isn\u2019t even a professional player, someone who\u2019s just a sparring partner?\u201d<\/p>\n Billie Jean King asked if Sabalenka & Kyrgios\u2019 Battle of the Sexes could damage women\u2019s tennis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka has put herself in the line of fire by accepting \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 showdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The 2017 Wimbledon champion added: \u201cThe difference is huge. It\u2019s not just power \u2013 physically\u2026 the muscles, the stamina a man has to play a match\u2026 There are so many things. I have two brothers and I\u2019ve never beaten them.<\/p>\n \u201cA guy who is ranked 1,000 in the world or doesn\u2019t even have a ranking could be far superior to a top-10 player on the WTA circuit. When I was at my best level, being world No 1, I wouldn\u2019t have even beaten a junior.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabalenka and Kyrgios insist the match will help women\u2019s tennis, just like the original Battle of the Sexes encounter between the great Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973.<\/p>\n Muguruza added: \u201cIt\u2019s more of a show \u2014 it has nothing to do with the Battle of the Sexes, with what Billie Jean King versus Bobby Riggs meant. That was incredible.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is entertainment. I think they\u2019ll play seriously, but the idea is for it to be a show and for the fans to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Former WTA No 1 makes honest confession \u2013 \u2018An unranked man can be far superior to a woman in top 10\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka is confident she will be able to match Nick Kyrgios in their controversial Battle of the Sexes clash, but former world No 1 Garbine Muguruza has sent a stark warning when it comes to women facing men. The exhibition will be staged on December 28 in Dubai and it has received a lot […]<\/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-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","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=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Battle Of The Sexes News<\/h2>\n