{"id":388429,"date":"2026-01-03T06:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388429\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:24:19","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-is-keen-for-a-battle-of-the-sexes-rematch-with-australian-player-nick-kyrgios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388429\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka \ufeffis keen for a Battle of the Sexes rematch with Australian player Nick Kyrgios"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite ongoing criticism from some in the tennis world, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> is keen for a Battle of the Sexes rematch with Australian player Nick Kyrgios<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios won the match with the women’s world No.1 in Dubai 6-3, 6-3, despite barely playing any tennis and dealing with multiple injuries over the last few years.<\/p>\n

The court on Sabalenka’s side was reduced in size by nine per cent, and each player only got one serve, in order to help even up the contest.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Nervous’: Why pressure on the SCG couldn’t be higher<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Team Australia rocked as doctors order teen star to rest<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Deeply sorry’ Neale confirms split after quitting captaincy<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennis players and media pundits alike have criticised the event, with American journalist Ben Rothenberg tweeting “the world is dumber for that match having happened”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios during the Battle of the Sexes match.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

However, Sabalenka is open to another bout with Kyrgios, saying she learned a lot in defeat and could push him further next time around.<\/p>\n

“I think I would definitely do it again. I love revenge and I don’t like to leave it the way it is,” Sabalenka told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“I think for the next match we will come up with a different format.<\/p>\n

“Before the match I didn’t realise I would have to adjust (to the court size) and it was a bit tricky for me. I think I would keep the full court but I would take two serves. That would even our level a lot more.<\/p>\n

“I always say that when you are losing you are learning and I learned a lot about his game. I know Nick as a player and a person better and I feel I know how to play against him. I would do it again. I need revenge.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios of Australia embrace at the net after the Battle of the Sexes match.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is in Queensland preparing to defend her title at the Brisbane International.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios enters the same event as a wildcard.<\/p>\n

“I am happy that I was able to challenge him, make him work and make him physically get tired and mentally get tired,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I felt really excited to see a man getting tired and going for his full game. It was a really cool experience and I really hope he will do well here in Brisbane and play incredible tennis in the Australian Open<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Sabalenka will enter this year’s Australian Open likely as the favourite, having won two of the last three tournaments and coming runner up in 2025.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios is hoping to make his grand slam return during the event, likely as a wildcard. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite ongoing criticism from some in the tennis world, Aryna Sabalenka is keen for a Battle of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-388429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388429","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=388429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}