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Sabalenka vs Kyrgios: A clash of the sexes without context
The women’s world No.1 and the struggling Aussie have found little popular support for their Dubai duel
Mumbai: In a concrete paradise, surrounded by the Arabian desert, stands the glistening Coca-Cola Arena. It is a multi-purpose venue in Dubai that will alter its ‘Field of Play’ for the demands of the event being organised. On Sunday, the lines of an indoor tennis court will be drawn inside the venue as a city that thrives on consumer culture will witness a tennis spectacle.
The stage is set for women’s singles world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka’s three-set match against current ATP world No.631 Nick Kyrgios in what has been promoted as the latest instalment of the ‘Battle of the Sexes’. Or, just another sports marketing gimmick?
Well, let’s go back to 1973.
At a London hotel that June, Billie Jean King the leader and 70 other women players formed the Women’s Tennis Association, in response to the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) formed a year earlier. That year, King fought for women to get equal prize money at the US Open, which became the first Grand Slam to implement that.
Questions about equal pay for women haven’t entirely gone away, but in the 1970s, they struggled to be taken seriously as professional athletes.
In the history of tennis, there have been exhibition singles matches between men and women. But there has been none as famous and important as the September 20, 1973 meeting between King, 29, and the 1939 Wimbledon singles champion Bobby Riggs, 55 at the time.
Ahead of the match, Riggs claimed women “belonged in the bedroom and kitchen” and “don’t have the emotional stability” to be athletes. King won one of the most consequential games for women’s sport, a best-of-five set match, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. That match proved an instrument of change. One that in 2017 was adapted into a well-received film.
And now, it’s a match that is being used to promote a commercially fuelled exhibition.
“The only similarity is that one’s a boy and one’s a girl. That’s it. Everything else, no,” King told BBC about Sabalenka versus Kyrgios. “Ours was about social change, culturally where we were in 1973. This one is not.”
Biology dictates the gap between men and women players. Which is why in Dubai Sabalenka’s side of the court will be reduced by 9% to give Kyrgios a smaller target and, as the press release said, “reflect average movement-speed difference between men and women”.
There will be no second serves, to reduce the margin of error on Kyrgios’ big serves in this three-setter. These are changes made to try and level the field. But then why have a match at all?
“The only reason they are putting this on is because their management company has gone, ‘we’re going to make a bit of money here’. But what is in this for women’s tennis?” former women’s doubles world No.1 Rennae Stubbs said on her podcast.
“Kyrgios, unless he is really hurt and can’t run at all, is going to win easily. It is just a fact. Male tennis players, especially someone as good as Kyrgios, even if he is playing at 50%, is going to win that match… It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Both Sabalenka – a 27-year-old four-time Grand Slam winner – Kyrgios, 30, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist who has played only six matches since 2023 end – are managed by the same agency.
Sabalenka though is adamant that there is still some benefit from this match for women’s tennis.
“I am not putting myself at any risk. We’re there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins,” she told BBC. “It’s so obvious that the man is biologically stronger than the woman, but it’s not about that. This event is only going to help bring women’s tennis to a higher level.”
Stubbs says it’s a lose-lose situation for women’s tennis.
“If Sabalenka wins, she beats a man who is unfit and has been a total irrelevance for a number of years. If Kyrgios wins, he and others of the same mind will claim it legitimises everything he’s already spewing out,” Stubbs was quoted by The Guardian as saying about her fellow Aussie.
In this new Battle of the Sexes rendition, the only fitting role is that of Kyrgios. While those close to Riggs claimed that his pre-match misogynistic statements were put on to drum up the match, Kyrgios has a history of chauvinism.
In 2015, he passed a sexual slur against the girlfriend of an opponent, he questioned women being paid equally at Grand Slams, and pleaded guilty in a case of domestic assault – all long before the match against Sabalenka was announced.
There have been many exibition matches between men and women since 1973, but none more farcical than Sabalenka versus Kyrgios.
