Aryna Sabalenka reveals hidden challenge of Grand Slams which \u2018is not easy to handle\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFor me, men\u2019s tennis and women\u2019s tennis are completely, almost two separate sports,\u201d she said on an American chat show in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I am like: \u2018If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0 6-0 in maybe five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes\u2019. It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different sport, the men are a lot faster and they serve harder, they hit hard, it\u2019s just a different game. And I love to play women\u2019s tennis. And I only want to play girls because I don\u2019t want to be embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Improved racket technology and strings development may have allowed women to close the power gap on men since Williams made those comments and her former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has given his verdict on the debate in a post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t count how many times I\u2019ve been sent this stat: Anisimova\u2019s backhand was faster than those of Alcaraz and Sinner during the US Open,\u201d wrote Mouratoglou.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s another intriguing fact from the broadcast: Sabalenka\u2019s numbers are just as impressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m not surprised. First, because we\u2019re talking about the backhand.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnisimova trusts hers 100%. She goes full throttle with minimal spin, sending the ball low over the net but with exceptional pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to the men\u2019s shots, her backhand travels faster and stays lower, generating more speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, that comes with increased risk. She plays close to the line and embraces a high-risk style, reminiscent of Ostapenko in this regard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also see similarities between Anisimova and Jessica Pegula in their timing. Both unlock effortless power thanks to their precise timing and technique.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn women\u2019s tennis, taking calculated risks and hitting flatter shots is a powerful strategy. Men cover the court much more quickly\u2014that\u2019s the key reason. Early, strong shots to open the court often pay off in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yes, you read that right \u2013 some women are consistently hitting shots faster than Alcaraz and Sinner. But above all, it\u2019s not that surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this is a fun topic that will always divide opinions, tennis should focus with pride on the equality it has always inspired among both female and male players.<\/p>\n
This is the only sport where equal prize money is not disputed at the highest level and both sets of athletes compete on the same stage.<\/p>\n
The revamped mixed doubles tournament at the US Open was a snapshot of what could happen when top female players try to return serves from their male counterparts and in general, they confirmed they could make some solid returns.<\/p>\n
Maybe we will get more insight into this fascinating battle of the sexes if Sabalenka and Kyrgios tee off against each other in the coming months.<\/p>\n
READ NEXT: The \u2018real\u2019 tennis rankings revealed \u2013 Sabalenka, Swiatek, Osaka and Raducanu in the mix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debate over what would happen if a top male player played one of the elite female players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-140714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}