![\"Aryna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-aryna-sabalenka-battle-of-the-sexes_7120906.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNick Kyrgios has defeated Aryna Sabalenka to win the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis exhibition match.<\/p>\n
The injury-wracked Australian maverick, currently ranked 671 in the world, beat the women’s world number one in straight sets 6-3 6-3.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s match in Dubai had modified rules where each player was restricted to one serve only rather than two, and Sabalenka’s side of the court was reduced in size by 9% to compensate for the difference in speed between men and women.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Aryna Sabalenka. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n
After his victory, Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up, said it was a “really tough match, she is a hell of a player and such a great champion”.<\/p>\n
He added: “She broke my serve numerous times, and I had to strap in.”<\/p>\n
“I would love to play her again and showcase her talent and what I have left in the tank.”<\/p>\n
There was laughing and joking between the players, some under-arm serves, and even dancing from Sabalenka during a timeout to entertain the crowd at the 17,000-seat Coca-Cola Arena.<\/p>\n
The players are represented by the same agency which arranged the exhibition match.<\/p>\n
Before the Dubai event, Kyrgios had been limited to just six tour-level singles matches since 2023 because of wrist and knee injuries. His most recent match was in March this year.<\/p>\n
The event<\/a> had divided opinion in the tennis world.<\/p>\n The so-called “Battle of the Sexes” was a name borrowed from a 1973 match, when Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome.<\/p>\n King won in straight sets and the match took place amid King’s efforts to start a female tour and get equal pay in tennis.<\/p>\n This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.<\/p>\n Please refresh the page for the fullest version.<\/p>\n You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app<\/a>. You can also follow us on WhatsApp<\/a> and subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a> to keep up with the latest news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios has defeated Aryna Sabalenka to win the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis exhibition match. The injury-wracked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-215063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}