{"id":389369,"date":"2026-01-03T17:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389369\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:04:07","slug":"i-dont-watch-stuff-like-that-swiatek-dismisses-modern-battle-of-the-sexes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389369\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t watch stuff like that\u201d : Swiatek dismisses modern \u201cbattle of the sexes\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek<\/a> did not watch Nick Kyrgios defeat Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> in Dubai last week, and she has no plans to catch the replay. Addressing the media in Sydney ahead of Poland\u2019s United Cup opener, the six-time Grand Slam champion offered a blunt dismissal of \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d marketing<\/a>, stating that women\u2019s tennis no longer needs to validate itself through comparisons to the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 28 match in Dubai, which saw world No. 1 Sabalenka fall 6-3, 6-3 to Kyrgios on a court with 9% reduced dimensions, was billed as a modern successor to Billie Jean King\u2019s 1973 clash with Bobby Riggs<\/a>. Swiatek, however, saw no parallel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t watched, because I don\u2019t watch stuff like that,\u201d Swiatek said Saturday. \u201cI think for sure it attracted, like, a lot of attention. It was an entertainment, but I wouldn\u2019t say that had anything to do with, like, social change or any important topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued by stripping away the historical weight often attached to such events: \u201cI think the name was just the same as the one from the Billie Jean King match in \u201973. That\u2019s it. There were no more similarities.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Independence of the WTA<\/p>\n

For Swiatek, the struggle for legitimacy that defined the 1970s is a historical relic rather than a current necessity. She argued that the modern WTA<\/a> Tour provides enough compelling narratives to exist without an ATP-centric yardstick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like women\u2019s tennis stands on its own right now,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cWe have so many great athletes and great stories to present, we don\u2019t necessarily need to, like, compare to men\u2019s tennis. It\u2019s a totally different story. I think, honestly, yeah, there doesn\u2019t need to be any competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the United Cup as the \u201cBetter\u201d Model<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

While dismissive of the exhibition format, the Pole championed the United Cup\u2019s official integration of the tours as a more authentic way to broaden the sport\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think actually events like this one, United Cup, brings tennis all together, and WTA fans and ATP fans can watch this event with so much excitement,\u201d she noted about this mixed team competition. \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<\/p>\n

Swiatek opens her 2026 season on Monday against Germany\u2019s Eva Lys, while teammate Hubert Hurkacz faces world No. 3 Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek did not watch Nick Kyrgios defeat Aryna Sabalenka in Dubai last week, and she has no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-389369","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\/389369","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=389369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}