Iga Swiatek revealed she did not watch the \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios and declared that \u201cthere doesn\u2019t need to be any competition\u201d between women and men in tennis.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios<\/a> defeated Sabalenka<\/a> 6-3, 6-3 in an exhibition match played with special rules in Dubai on December 28. Both players were limited to using one serve, while Sabalenka\u2019s side of the court was 9% smaller than Kyrgios\u2019.<\/p>\n It was the the fourth match in tennis history labelled 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 famous \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match.<\/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 During a Team Poland press conference at the United Cup, Swiatek<\/a> was asked if she had watched Sabalenka and Kyrgios\u2019 contest and whether she had any thoughts on it.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I haven\u2019t watched, because I don\u2019t watch stuff like that. I think for sure it attracted, like, a lot of attention,\u201d said the world No 2.<\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka calls for Nick Kyrgios \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 rematch \u2013 but with one rule change<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Will Aryna Sabalenka or Coco Gauff have a better season in 2026? Ex-stars predict<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was an entertainment, but I wouldn\u2019t say that had anything to do with, like, social change or any important topics. I think the name was just the same as the one from the Billie Jean King match in \u201973. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no more similarities because I feel like women\u2019s tennis stands on its own right now. We have so many great athletes and great stories to present, we don\u2019t necessarily need to, like, compare to men\u2019s tennis. It\u2019s a totally different story.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, honestly, yeah, there doesn\u2019t need to be any competition. I think actually events like this one, United Cup, brings tennis all together, and WTA fans and ATP fans can watch this event with so much excitement.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing also singles players that usually don\u2019t have space to play mixed doubles together, playing these kind of matches, I think this is actually what makes our sport much more interesting and better.<\/p>\n \u201cSo yeah, I haven\u2019t watched the match. I only know about how it looked like. But I think, yeah, it was for sure nice entertainment and an exho match between these two.\u201d<\/p>\n Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam champion, will begin her 2026 season at the United Cup.<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n READ NEXT: Hate flowing Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s way is not justified as attention seekers cash in<\/a> The post Iga Swiatek gives her honest opinion on Aryna Sabalenka & Nick Kyrgios\u2019 \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iga Swiatek revealed she did not watch the \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios and declared that \u201cthere doesn\u2019t need to be any competition\u201d between women and men in tennis. Kyrgios defeated Sabalenka 6-3, 6-3 in an exhibition match played with special rules in Dubai on December 28. Both players […]<\/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-1545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545","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=1545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What did Iga Swiatek say about the latest \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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