{"id":365656,"date":"2025-12-23T01:09:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365656\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T01:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:09:24","slug":"sabalenka-and-kyrgios-match-is-an-insult-to-womens-sport-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365656\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka and Kyrgios\u2019 match is an insult to women\u2019s sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the record, King won the match decisively, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n

When asked about her thoughts on the sequel, King was blunt: \u201cThe only similarity is that one is a boy, and one is a girl. That\u2019s it. Everything else, no. Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Billie<\/p>\n

Billie Jean King (right) with Evonne Goolagong Cawley at the 2023 Australian Open.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

King is right. This remake has nothing to do with social change and everything to do with crass commercialism.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade in particular, there\u2019s been a seismic shift for women in sport globally. One of the joys of documenting this has been the move away from comparing women\u2019s and men\u2019s sport. There\u2019s now broad recognition that the two are different and should be celebrated equally in their own right.<\/p>\n

No longer is the word \u201cequality\u201d an afterthought \u2013 it is central to the whole discussion. Girls and women are crashing through the grass ceiling<\/a>, creating pathways and opportunities across a range of sports. Female sporting role models are more visible; these days, they\u2019re celebrated for their actual sporting prowess, not for lying in a bathtub full of golf balls.<\/p>\n

When it all comes together, and sport invests in women, you get results like 86,174 at the MCG for the Women\u2019s T20 World Cup Final between Australia and India on International Women\u2019s Day, 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Sabalenka<\/p>\n

Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

We can, at last, see real and meaningful progress.<\/p>\n

Considering these advances, it feels grossly out of step to promote a tennis match that insults Sabalenka, who has won four grand slam singles titles and is the women\u2019s world No.1. Pitting her against a man suggests that it\u2019s all well and good being a women\u2019s champion, but let\u2019s measure you against a real yardstick.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Fitting for the circus, but not modern sport.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most disturbingly, the battle of the sexes provides a sugar hit for misogynists who use social media as a vehicle to denigrate, threaten and abuse women in sport.<\/p>\n

As a journalist who expresses opinions about sport, I know from personal experience that there\u2019s something darkly savage about the online abuse that women in sport cop. It\u2019s truly disgusting \u2013 and emanates from a belief that women don\u2019t belong here. This match is exactly the sort of story that feeds the beast.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka says the match will help take women\u2019s tennis to a higher level, but I can\u2019t see how. If she loses, the women\u2019s game will be ridiculed, and misogynists will melt keyboards. If she wins, the narrative will be that she beat an injured has-been who\u2019s barely picked up a racquet in two years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting that the sporting landscape is entirely fair in 2025. There are still barriers \u2013 structural and attitudinal \u2013 that stop women and girls from thriving in sport. But stunts that invite ridicule and abuse are not the answer.<\/p>\n

Respect. Invest. Promote.<\/p>\n

\"Sabalenka<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has won four grand slam titles \u2013 two at the Australian Open and two at the US Open.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Some things from the 1970s are worth hanging onto, but the battle of the sexes isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n

Aside from bank accounts, there are no real winners here.<\/p>\n

Angela Pippos is a journalist, writer, filmmaker and former political adviser.<\/p>\n

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the record, King won the match decisively, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. When asked about her thoughts on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-365656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}