\u201cShe\u2019s not gonna beat me, brother. Do you really think I have to try 100 per cent?\u201d <\/p>\n
He then goes on to suggest that \u201cour serves\u2026 women can\u2019t return and then we can just chip and drop shot\u201d. <\/p>\n
Kyrgios is planning to take on three-time major winner Sabalenka in an exhibition later this year, perhaps in Hong Kong \u2013 although sources say the exact venue has not yet been confirmed \u2013 and regulations on WTA players and exhibition events will make it politically tricky.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios\u2019s performance is a passable homage to Bobby Riggs, the tennis player and hustler who successfully goaded both Margaret Court and Billie Jean King into matches known respectively as the \u201cMother\u2019s Day Massacre\u201d and \u201cthe Battle of the Sexes\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Aug](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_264216491.jpg\")
Sabalenka is the runaway world No 1 in the women\u2019s game (Photo: Reuters)<\/p>\n
For Riggs, the matches were about the pursuit of money and attention, all served with a side-order of smugness. For Kyrgios, the motives are the same. <\/p>\n
There was a time when the Australian was able to garner all of the above through pure tennis ability. His breakout run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals is now 11 years in the past, when he beat Rafael Nadal in the fourth round. He backed it up by making the last eight of his home grand slam seven months later, but it was seven years before he would do it again.<\/p>\n
And now, since the start of 2023, he has won only one competitive singles match. He has played a few more exhibitions at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, the event that is being lined up to host his clash with Sabalenka, but the reality is bleak. He has become more of a meme than a tennis player.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios\u2019s demise has not come about without misfortune. His well-documented battles with depression, anxiety and substance abuse doubtless made it harder to be a professional tennis player in the truest sense of the words.<\/p>\n
But his appetite for the graft required to succeed at the top of the game, alongside the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, has either waned or was never really there. <\/p>\n
He continues to put his name into the hat for grand slams and big tournaments on tour \u2013 his interview with Bublik took place shortly before he pulled out of the US Open \u2013 but tends to withdraw a few days before, citing injury.<\/p>\n
Tennis is a gruelling sport and there is no shortcut for the hard work required to withstand it. Train hard without the proper foundation, and the body will break down<\/a>. Kyrgios is only 30 but has the injury record<\/a> of a player far older and with far more miles on the clock.<\/p>\n