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The title \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d harks back to the meeting between King and Bobby Riggs in September 1973, in what was a game-changing moment for the sport. <\/p>\n
Back then, there was far more at stake with the nascent women\u2019s professional tour, set up by King, fighting for its legitimacy and prize money for female players still far lower than for the men. <\/p>\n
Beyond the tennis court, women struggled for equal rights in almost every aspect of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the same thing,\u201d King, now 82, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cOurs was about social change… This one is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cMine was really political. It was rough, culturally, what was coming in with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to beat him for societal change. I had a lot of reasons to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
King, one of the all-time greats of the women\u2019s game who was at the peak of her powers, saw off the 55-year-old Riggs, a top player in his day, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in Houston. <\/p>\n
Few, though, believe Sabalenka can repeat that success even against Kyrgios, who once reached 13 in the world but has played just six main draw matches over the last three seasons and is now ranked 671 on the ATP Tour. <\/p>\n
Tennis players Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, left, and Nick Kyrgios of Australia face-off with the trophy during a press conference ahead of the Battle of the Sexes exhibition match at Atlantis The Royal in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo\/ Fatima Shbair)Source: AP<\/p>\n
\u201cA guy ranked No. 1000, or who doesn\u2019t even have a ranking, can be far superior to a top-10 player on the WTA Tour,\u201d former women\u2019s world No.1 Garbine Muguruza told Spain\u2019s Cope radio. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was at my best, as world No.1, a junior could beat me,\u201d added the former Wimbledon and French Open champion.<\/p>\n
The organisers have attempted to balance the duel, which will be played best of three sets, by tweaking some rules.<\/p>\n
For example, both players will have only one serve, and Sabalenka\u2019s half of the court will be nine percent smaller in area than Kyrgios\u2019s. <\/p>\n
But even the reduced court is unlikely to make much difference.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s pioneering work off the court paid off: women now receive equal prize money to the men at each of the four majors.<\/p>\n
On Sunday (local time) there is nothing at stake other than likes, shares, broadcast ratings and cold, hard cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason they are putting this on is because their management company has gone, \u2018we\u2019re going to make a bit of money here.\u2019 But what is in this for women\u2019s tennis?\u201d six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Rennae Stubbs said on her tennis podcast. <\/p>\n
Perhaps it is the deliberate decision to call it the \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d which has drawn the ire of so many although Kyrgios reckons that has been petrol to the flames of publicity. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll the negative comments towards the battle of the sexes are doing nothing but giving it more attention,\u201d he posted on social media. <\/p>\n
\u201cAryna will go down as one of the greatest players to play this game. I will have entertained crowds around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka has been equally as blunt: \u201cSit back and enjoy the show… No one cares what you have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her many reservations King is still hoping for a similar outcome as her match. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it\u2019s a great match,\u201d said the 1973 winner. \u201cI want Sabalenka, obviously, to win — but it\u2019s just not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Kyrgios vs Aryna Sabalenka in the Battle of the Sexes match takes place at 3am AEDT on Monday December 29 and can be seen on Stan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios will meet in the \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d on Sunday, but the only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-372713","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\/372713","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=372713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}