Iga Swiatek dismisses the need for modern \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 matches, stating women\u2019s tennis stands on its own with great athletes and stories.<\/p>\n
SYDNEY: World number two Iga Swiatek (pic) has dismissed the relevance of modern \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 exhibition matches. She stated that women\u2019s tennis has nothing left to prove.<\/p>\n
The Polish star was commenting on last week\u2019s controversial match in Dubai between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios. Swiatek said she did not watch the exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for sure it attracted a lot of attention. It was entertainment, but I wouldn\u2019t say that had anything to do with social change or any important topics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Swiatek argued the event bore little resemblance to the iconic 1973 match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. She believes women\u2019s tennis now stands firmly on its own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many great athletes and great stories to present, we don\u2019t necessarily need to compare to men\u2019s tennis,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cHonestly, there doesn\u2019t need to be any competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed to the United Cup, where she opens her season, as a superior model. She believes it better celebrates both tours together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think actually events like this one, United Cup, brings tennis together, and WTA fans and ATP fans can watch this event with so much excitement,\u201d Swiatek said.<\/p>\n
The six-time Grand Slam champion is preparing for the Australian Open, the only major title she has yet to win. She praised the United Cup format for its mixed doubles component.<\/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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka has since defended her decision to play Kyrgios. She argued tennis needs to \u201ckeep it fresh, keep it new, keep it fun\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I would definitely do it again,\u201d Sabalenka said this week. \u201cI love revenge and I don\u2019t like to leave it the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek dismisses the need for modern \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 matches, stating women\u2019s tennis stands on its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,24141,208205,2636,161068,85,747,38309],"class_list":["post-388359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-battle-of-the-sexes","tag-exhibition-matches","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-mens-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-womens-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388359","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=388359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}