{"id":381686,"date":"2026-01-01T15:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/381686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:18:09","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-does-not-deserve-the-hate-coming-her-way-after-nick-kyrgios-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/381686\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka does not deserve the hate coming her way after Nick Kyrgios clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> was rightfully a little bemused by the abuse that flowed in her direction before and after her controversial \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 clash with Nick Kyrgios<\/a> and with good reason.<\/p>\n

The identity of the male player involved in last week\u2019s match in Dubai added fuel to the fire of those who were keen to belittle the contest between the world No 1 female tennis player and the 2022 Wimbledon finalist.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios admitted assaulting his girlfriend in a Canberra court case back in 2023, with that stain on his record ensuring those who were offended by his place in the \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match had plenty of ammunition to fire at the exhibition event.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick Kyrgios is a man who stands for something and that\u2019s not an accident. He is choosing to stand for and represent misogyny,\u201d said broadcaster Catherine Whitaker on The Tennis Podcast<\/a> in the built-up to the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what Nick Kyrgios will be representing and fighting for in the self-titled Battle of the Sexes. A validation of his belittling of women\u2019s tennis and the way he perceives women and women\u2019s sport of being lesser purely on the basis of brute power.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios \u2018money grab\u2019 exhibition gets scathing verdict \u2013 \u2018I hope the money was worth it\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Former British No 1 delivers a damning verdict as Nick Kyrgios beats Aryna Sabalenka<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis event is a dog whistle. It feels like a dog whistle publicity stunt. A symbol of the populist Trumpian age of do-whistles and division and stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitaker was not alone in voicing her annoyance at the event, with many voicing their concern that the event was doing damage not just to tennis but to women\u2019s sport as a whole.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match became a vehicle for those looking to promote an agenda that is not relevant in tennis, as our sport has led the way in the battle for equal prize money for women and men and continues to be a standard bearer for every other sport playing catch up.<\/p>\n

That reality did not stop those who build their brand around spreading a narrative that was not relevant to this match, which was little more than some frivolous entertainment in a Christmas week that was lacking tennis.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka vs Kygrios put tennis in front of a huge global audience at a time when the sport is off the radar and while the brief and somewhat underwhelming match was not a tennis match that will live long in the memory, it had enough interest to get us all talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly\u2026I don\u2019t understand how people were able to find something negative in this event,\u201d said Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for WTA, I think I just showed that\u2026I mean I was playing great tennis. It was an entertaining match and yeah, he won this match, but I showed great tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like six love, six love. It was a great fight. It was interesting to watch. It brought more eyes on tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegends were watching this match, pretty big people were messaging me wishing all the best and telling me that they\u2019re going to be watching from all different areas of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I feel like we just brought more attention to our sport and I don\u2019t see how it can be bad. How you can talk negatively about this?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the idea behind it is to help our sport grow and show tennis from from a different side \u2013 that tennis events can be more fun, more entertaining and we can make it almost as big as a Grand Slam matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I think the attention that we built up to this event was not less than the Grand Slam final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was handed a big appearance fee for her role in this match and no harm was done to the reputation of women\u2019s tennis or sport as a whole, so those continuing to fire criticism at the world No 1 in a bid to play up to their own audience need to move on.<\/p>\n

No one will remember this \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 match as anything more than a show to keep a big crowd and some fans watching on TV entertained for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stop chastising Sabalenka and claiming she was a part of a show that counted for anything more than that.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Nick Kyrgios brings up his record against Big Four while praising Aryna Sabalenka<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka was rightfully a little bemused by the abuse that flowed in her direction before and after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-381686","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\/381686","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=381686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}