{"id":7304,"date":"2025-12-19T08:14:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=7304"},"modified":"2025-12-19T08:15:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:15:48","slug":"tennis-is-set-for-a-battle-of-the-sexes-sequel-with-no-movement-behind-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/tennis-is-set-for-a-battle-of-the-sexes-sequel-with-no-movement-behind-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis is set for a \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 sequel \u2013 with no movement behind\u00a0it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an event billed as tennis\u2019s latest \u201cBattle of the Sexes,\u201d Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 1-ranked women\u2019s tennis player in the world, will take on Nick Kyrgios, who\u2019s currently ranked No. 673 on the men\u2019s tour, on Dec. 28, 2025, in Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about respect, rivalry and reimagining what equality in sport can look like,\u201d explained Stuart Duguid, who, along with tennis great Naomi Osaka, co-founded Evolve, the sports agency putting on the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll try my best to kick his ass,\u201d Sabalenka said during a September 2025 press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not going to beat me,\u201d Kyrgios responded. \u201cDo you really think I have to try 100%?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evolve has promoted the Dubai event as a sequel to the iconic 1973 \u201cBattle of the Sexes,\u201d in which Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as critical scholars of sport, we see important differences between the two contests. For one, there are the rules: different court dimensions, service restrictions and scoring systems. What\u2019s more, the two events\u2019 political and cultural contexts set them even further apart. While King\u2019s victory is viewed as a feminist triumph over entrenched sexism, neither Sabalenka nor Kyrgios seem to be playing for anything beyond the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes us wonder whether women \u2013 and women\u2019s sports more specifically \u2013 have anything to gain from this latest battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting \u2018women\u2019s lib\u2019 on the map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The feminist movement of the early 1970s saw American women fight for better rights, opportunities, rewards, reproductive freedoms and bodily autonomy. They also sought access to and equality in sports. Women\u2019s tennis led the way, as King and others bravely formed their own tour, unionized and negotiated for equal pay at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riggs \u2013 a 55-year-old ex-champion and self-proclaimed \u201cmale chauvinist pig\u201d \u2013 was a noisy antagonist. He maintained that better pay should go to men like him on the senior tour, not to women. To prove it \u2013 and to bully his way back into the limelight \u2013 Riggs pestered the 29-year-old King to play him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Man
Bobby Riggs was carried to the court by a group of young women ahead of his tennis match against Billie Jean King at the Houston Astrodome on Sep. 20, 1973. Bettmann\/Getty Images<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou not only cannot beat a top male player,\u201d he needled, \u201cyou can\u2019t beat me, a tired old man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t need him; we were making it on our own merits,\u201d she later explained<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
Billie Jean King throws her racket in the air after defeating retired pro Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome on Sep. 20, 1973. UPI\/Bettmann Archive via Getty Images<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But when Riggs trounced the No. 1 women\u2019s player, Margaret Court, in May 1973, King, then ranked No. 2, felt she had no choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarge blew it,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cI\u2019m going to put women\u2019s lib where it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King rose to the occasion. Before 30,000 spectators at the Houston Astrodome and another 90 million television viewers, she walloped Riggs in three straight sets. Her victory took on an even larger significance, becoming a symbol of what women can accomplish when given the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about tennis,\u201d King later assessed. \u201cIt was about social change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apolitical star vs. the \u2018bad boy\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what, then, is the new \u201cbattle\u201d about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King has yet to comment on the 2025 event, but she is a fan of Sabalenka\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I love about you is that when you come out to play, you bring all of yourself,\u201d King told the four-time Grand Slam champion after her 2024 U.S. Open victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off the court, however, the two women seem to have little in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King has always maintained that sports are political; Sabalenka has distanced herself from that position. When asked about Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, for example, the Belarusian explained, \u201cI don\u2019t want sport to be involved in politics, because I\u2019m just a 25-year-old tennis player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King never argued that women were better players than the men. But \u201cfrom a show-biz standpoint,\u201d she clarified in her 1974 autobiography, \u201cI felt we put on as good a performance as the men \u2013 sometimes better \u2013 and that that\u2019s what people paid to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sabalenka, in contrast, once told a reporter that she prefers watching men\u2019s tennis because \u201cit\u2019s more interesting\u201d than the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments like Sabalenka\u2019s throw sand into the gears of the ongoing struggle for gender equity, to which King remains committed. Although all four Grand Slam events now offer equal prize money, disparities persist at lower-level tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 2024 Italian Open, for instance, men competed for a prize pool of US$8.5 million. The women\u2019s equivalent was $5.5 million. That same year, women\u2019s prize money at the Canadian Open totaled $2.5 million, while the men split $5.9 million. Men still receive better scheduling and court assignments, more media coverage and more lucrative sponsorships. As former No-2-ranked women\u2019s tennis player Ons Jabeur put it, it\u2019s not \u201cjust a question of money, but also respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Kyrgios, like Riggs more than half a century ago, has spoken out against equal pay for women players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, some might say Kyrgios\u2019 sexism makes Riggs\u2019 seem almost quaint. In 2015, he was fined $10,000 after making vulgar comments about his opponent\u2019s girlfriend during a match. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-girlfriend after pushing her during an argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyrgios has \u201cgone to all lengths\u201d to distance himself from overtly misogynist influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who have been criminally charged with human trafficking, rape and assault. But this was only after Kyrgios faced significant backlash for expressing \u201clow-key\u201d love for the brothers and reposting Andrew on social platform X for \u201cspeaking facts as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
Nick Kyrgios has earned a reputation as the \u2018bad boy of tennis.\u2019 Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Kyrgios \u2013 again, like Riggs \u2013 is also struggling to remain relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By all accounts, he is a tremendously talented player who has yet to live up to his potential. Plagued with wrist and knee injuries, Kyrgios has competed in only six tour-level matches in the past three years: winning one, losing four and retiring in another. Consequently, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist, once ranked in the top 20, is better known as a \u201cbad boy of tennis\u201d who smashes rackets, makes lewd comments and gestures, tanks matches and verbally abuses umpires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lose-lose for women\u2019s sports?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kyrgios\u2019 showdown with Sabalenka may be entertaining. But for women\u2019s sports, it seems like a lose-lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Sabalenka wins, critics will likely claim it\u2019s because she had every advantage. Evolve has modified the rules to make her side of the court 9% smaller than Kyrgios\u2019 in both length and width. The dimensions are based on Evolve\u2019s calculation that the top women players move 9% slower than their male counterparts, although there is no published data to support the claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further mitigate Kyrgios\u2019 reported \u201cpower and speed advantage,\u201d both players will be limited to just one serve. Unlike King and Riggs\u2019 best-of-five sets, Sabalenka and Kyrgios will play best-of-three. Split sets between the two competitors will result in a 10-point tiebreaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Kyrgios victory will only bolster arguments that the best woman cannot compete with the 673rd-ranked man, even when the rules are bent to her favor. We could see those arguments being weaponized against women\u2019s sports more generally, which remain underresourced and undervalued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also the question of the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2025 event will take place in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE government has been accused of egregious human rights abuses, which include gender discrimination, the criminalization of same-sex relations, and clamping down on freedom of speech and the media. Hosting high-profile sporting events distracts from these issues while cleansing the UAE\u2019s public image in what\u2019s known as \u201csportswashing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to host a tennis \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d in a country where women are battling for basic human rights?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2017 Hollywood film \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d reaffirmed the importance of the King-Riggs contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barring some surprise twist, no one will make a movie about the Sabalenka-Kyrgios duel in Dubai. We see it as nothing more than a publicity stunt and cash grab for Sabalenka, Kyrgios and, above all, Evolve. If this is \u201creimagining what equality in sport can look like,\u201d as the organizers claim, then it is equality without substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is no battle at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Jaime Schultz<\/a>, Professor of Kinesiology, Penn State<\/a><\/em>; Kyle R. King<\/a>, Associate Professor of English and Communication Arts & Sciences, Penn State<\/a><\/em>; Molly McCreedy<\/a>, PhD Student in Kinesiology, Penn State<\/a><\/em>, and Sydney Johnson-Aguirre<\/a>, PhD Student in Philosophy, Penn State<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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