An attempt at some unintentional humour: in Nick Kyrgios\u2019s introduction montage, the Australian checked into the venue seated on a camel.<\/p>\n
An attempt to jazz up the glam: for Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s entry, the Belarusian emerged from the stands wearing a shiny, glitzy trench coat, while she danced away for the cameras during a mid-match \u201cstrategic timeout\u201d.<\/p>\n
An attempt at a bit of unique tennis: around plenty of giggles and banter between points, there was, to be fair, some of that too.<\/p>\n
You may call it what you want \u2013 exhibition; entertainment; spectacle; anything but tennis as the world knows it. But in what was called the \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d of the modern era, Kyrgios, a 30-year-old men\u2019s tennis pro with one ATP match win this year, beat Sabalenka, the 27-year-old women\u2019s world No.1 with one Grand Slam title and 59 WTA match wins this year, 6-3, 6-3 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.<\/p>\n
The start resembled more a concert than a legitimate sporting exhibition. There was plenty of fun and games through it but, in fleeting moments, a pinch of tennis too; even if the court dimensions were skewed and the rules tweaked.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, arguably the most consistent women\u2019s player over the past couple of seasons, at times matched Kyrgios, the injury-ravaged pro who\u2019s competed precious little in the last two years and played in a friendly league in Bengaluru before flying to Dubai, from the back of the court. Kyrgios, of the big serve and cheeky shots, was huffing and puffing towards the back end of the second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really tough match. She\u2019s a hell of a competitor,\u201d said Krygios.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I put on a great fight,\u201d said Sabalenka. \u201cReally enjoyed the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Show being the operative word here.<\/p>\n
The match, the setting, its protagonists, and the terminology, with its historical connotation, had elicited sharp opinions from within the tennis community and beyond.<\/p>\n
It was clear, much before the first shot of this match was hit and soon after the concept was announced, that this wasn\u2019t going to be even remotely similar to one of the OG \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d.<\/p>\n
That 1973 piece of history \u2013 where a 29-year-old Billie Jean King, among the founders of the current Women\u2019s Tennis Association (WTA), beat a 55-year-old Bobby Riggs \u2013 was a watershed moment in King\u2019s advocacy for better treatment of professional women athletes. This 2025 exhibition of razzmatazz was an exercise to, as Sabalenka and Kyrgios both insisted, put on a show, entertain, and maybe attract a new reels-hooked audience to the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not putting myself at any risk. We\u2019re there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins,\u201d Sabalenka had said earlier.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, the current queen of women\u2019s tennis, was not out to be King.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka was sure out to put on a show, though. And Kyrgios was happy to play his part. Watched by what seemed a sold-out 17,000-seater arena, Sabalenka often broke into a dance. Kyrgios threw in the underarm serve. The two chuckled at each other, bantered between points and shared a hug at the end of it.<\/p>\n
It was also clear that this contest wasn\u2019t, in the purest sense of the term, a contest. Like with some previous \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d, there were tweaks to narrow the obvious difference \u201cthat the man is biologically stronger than the woman\u201d, as Sabalenka had put it. And, that men\u2019s and women\u2019s tennis, as Serena Williams once famously said, are almost two separate sports.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka\u2019s half of the court was 9% smaller because as per data by organisers Evolve \u2013 it also manages both these athletes \u2013 women players move around 9% slower than men on average. Both also had just one serve, the most dominant weapon in the men\u2019s game, and indeed even in Kyrgios\u2019.<\/p>\n
And so, without the second serve, there were breaks flying thick and fast in the first set. Kyrgios took some time to adjust to the changed dimensions on the other side of the court. Sabalenka exploited the angles, but once the Australian got a hang of it, that was that in terms of the tennis bit. It had its little moments, like when a powerful Sabalenka forehand down the line winner on the run left Kyrgios stranded.<\/p>\n
However, in the end, this was more about a couple of people having some fun on court. You may call it what you want. \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d? Perhaps best to leave aside the apt terminology to sum this up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt at some unintentional humour: in Nick Kyrgios\u2019s introduction montage, the Australian checked into the venue seated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[4909,64,63,202995,963,147813,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-376598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-kyrgios","12":"tag-nick-kyrgios","13":"tag-sabalenka","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376598","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=376598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}