{"id":378420,"date":"2025-12-29T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378420\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:22:12","slug":"kyrgios-sabalenka-see-only-positives-in-battle-of-the-sexes-tennis-match-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378420\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrgios, Sabalenka see only positives in \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 tennis match after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios defended their controversial \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d match and said they failed to understand why an exhibition aimed at showcasing tennis \u200cdrew so much negativity from the tennis community.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios defeated world number one \u200dSabalenka 6-3 6-3 at a packed Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on Sunday despite several rule tweaks implemented by the organisers to level the playing field.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Both players were only allowed one serve and Sabalenka\u2019s half of the court was nine per cent smaller in area than Kyrgios\u2019.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Critics had warned that the match, a nod to the 1973 original \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d in which women\u2019s trailblazer Billie Jean King beat \u2060then 55-year-old former grand slam winner Bobby Riggs, risked trivialising the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Critics had warned that the match risked trivialising the women\u2019s game. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ffd63a20-d791-40ab-9402-ebd1571ede1e_46d105d3.jpg\" title=\"Critics had warned that the match risked trivialising the women\u2019s game. Photo: Reuters\"\/>Critics had warned that the match risked trivialising the women\u2019s game. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">King said Sunday\u2019s encounter lacked the stakes of her match while others, including former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs, said the event was a publicity stunt and money grab.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI honestly don\u2019t understand how people were able to find something negative in this event,\u201d Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios defended their controversial \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d match and said they failed to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[3581,4909,64,63,24141,1804,82975,203873,5951,963,3592,201377,90845,965,85,747,749,2637],"class_list":["post-378420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-andy-murray","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-battle-of-the-sexes","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-bobby-riggs","tag-coca-cola-arena","tag-dubai","tag-nick-kyrgios","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafa-nadal","tag-rennae-stubbs","tag-roger-federer","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wimbledon","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378420","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=378420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}