By Bhagya Ayyavoo<\/p>\n
BENGALURU, Dec 17 (Reuters) \u2013 Nick Kyrgios believes few male players would accept the chance to face a top woman as the maverick Australian prepares to take on women\u2019s world \u200dnumber one Aryna Sabalenka in a \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d exhibition later this month.<\/p>\n
While many consider the December 28 meeting between Kyrgios and four-times Grand Slam champion Sabalenka in Dubai as nothing more than entertainment, critics believe it risks undermining the reputation of women\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s trailblazer Billie Jean King famously defeated the \u200c55-year-old former Grand Slam champion Bobby Riggs in \u200ca similar showdown, and Kyrgios conceded he was a bit nervous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my chances are really high. I\u2019m very confident in my ability,\u201d Kyrgios said with a smile during the World Tennis League exhibition tournament in the south \u200bIndian city of Bengaluru on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun, but also I\u2019m a bit nervous. I like doing things that are outside \u200dthe box. Honestly, not many males in \u200bmy position would have done that and taken the \u200bopportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Riggs, Kyrgios is still an active player on the men\u2019s circuit \u200deven though he has played only five professional matches in 2025 because of injuries that have dogged his career.<\/p>\n
The former world number 13 had said in September that women cannot return men\u2019s serves and he would defeat Sabalenka without having to try 100% but added the \u200dmatch would increase respect between the men\u2019s and women\u2019s tours.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said this month men were \u201cbiologically stronger\u201d than women but her clash with the former Wimbledon \u200dfinalist was not about \u200dthat and the event would only help bring \u200bwomen\u2019s tennis to a higher level<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, a major draw \u200bon \u2060and off the court with his natural talent and \u200cunapologetic personality, said he was unsure how the Dubai event would unfold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, we\u2019ll see,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in a lot of controversies in my whole career and this is another thing I get to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Bhagya Ayyavoo in Bengaluru; Writing by Shrivathsa Sridhar; Editing \u2060by Andrew Cawthorne)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bhagya Ayyavoo BENGALURU, Dec 17 (Reuters) \u2013 Nick Kyrgios believes few male players would accept the chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-351450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}