{"id":375113,"date":"2025-12-29T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/375113\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:43:09","slug":"nick-kyrgios-handed-warning-over-tennis-future-after-battle-of-the-sexes-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/375113\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios handed warning over tennis future after Battle of the Sexes \u2018gimmick\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Kyrgios<\/a> has been warned over ability to compete at the top of men\u2019s after former British No 1 Greg Rusedski was left unimpressed by his performance in the controversial Battle of the Sexes<\/a> exhibition against Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Australian eased to a straight-sets win (6-3, 6-3), despite combatting a reduced court size<\/a> on the women\u2019s world No 1\u2019s side, though doubts remain about his physical condition after an injury-plagued 2025 saw him feature in just five professional matches.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Sabalenka hinted at a rematch with Kyrgios, despite many lacking the desired entertainment in their first encounter<\/a>, but as attention turns to the 2026 Australian Open, Rusedski has criticised Kyrgios and questioned his tennis future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked before the match on our podcast whether it was a gimmick and the answer is\u2026 gimmick, gimmick gimmick. I did not enjoy it. I just thought Kyrgios was dictating. Let\u2019s not forget he was No 671 in the world,\u201d Rusedski said on Off Court Cuts<\/a>, with Kyrgios\u2019 ranking plummeting due to inactivity and not showing his true potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we actually need this and was it good for tennis? I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really didn\u2019t feel like a match. Sabalenka is a brilliant tennis player. The world No 1, a multiple Slam winner. I just don\u2019t think we need this for our sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a guy who is not in shape and who hasn\u2019t played for three years. You can see him sweating profusely on court and this just didn\u2019t work for me.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Kyrgios gestures to the crowd (Amy Alfiky\/POOL\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big of a purist and I\u2019d rather watch the mixed doubles exhibition they had at the US Open. For me that is better value and a better advertisement of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Kyrgios has confirmed his ATP Tour return<\/a>, with the 30-year-old handed a wildcard for next month\u2019s Brisbane International<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite his ranking dropping to 673 in the world, Kyrgios will feature at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane before starring in the Kooyong Classic exhibition in Melbourne just a week prior to the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios is still to hear whether the Australian Open will grant him a wildcard, with his display in Dubai moving him closer to the match fitness required to compete over a best-of-five sets format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios has been warned over ability to compete at the top of men\u2019s after former British No…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6005,7641,49,48,160162,149625,10460,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-375113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-australian-open","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-gimmick","13":"tag-greg-rusedski","14":"tag-nick-kyrgios","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375113","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=375113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}