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Nick Kyrgios beat Aryna Sabalenka in straight units to win the 2025 model of the “Battle of the Sexes” in Dubai on Sunday, December 28, resulting in ridicule from followers on social media.
“Does Sabalenka even notice how silly this makes her look? Battle of the Sexes… woman, so embarrassing,” mentioned one fan by way of X, alongside a screenshot from the match.
Kyrgios gained the primary two units of the best-of-three contest, 6-3, 6-3.
Sunday’s “Battle of the Sexes” referenced the 1973 match by the identical identify between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King gained that match, marking a historic second within the development of ladies’s tennis.
The 2025 “Battle of the Sexes” didn’t fairly maintain the identical weight, having extra of an leisure really feel to it reasonably than a momentous, cultural and arguably political event.
Regardless of the loss, Sabalenka alluded to probably dealing with off towards Kyrgios once more.
“Actually loved the present,” Sabalenka mentioned after the match. “And I really feel like subsequent time I play him I’m going to know the ways, his strengths and his weaknesses, and it’s going to be a greater match, for positive.”
Sabalenka’s play earned her some form phrases from Kyrgios, who was visibly exhausted after the match.
Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios Getty Pictures
“She’s an incredible athlete, when she was transferring aspect to aspect she was taking part in pictures that among the high males play,” he mentioned on the court docket after the match. “I’m not shocked, I’ve seen her play and now we have practiced a few occasions. She was proper there, it might have gone both method.”
Kyrgios at present ranks No. 671 in males’s singles and has solely performed 5 matches in 2025 as he recovers from harm. He was the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2022.
“I used to be nervous,” he mentioned. “I don’t suppose many individuals would have put their hand as much as be on this place. The rating line was shut, I used to be underneath the pump there. I used to be nervous, that is all of the world was speaking about for the final six months. I couldn’t even use my proper hand a 12 months, 18 months in the past. I’m glad to even be again out right here and play, truthfully it’s fairly emotional.”
Sabalenka, alternatively, is ranked No. 1 on the ladies’s aspect and is coming off a US Open championship.
“By placing myself on this state of affairs, taking part in a man, I’m inspiring the subsequent era [of women] to be nice, to problem your self, to be robust,” Sabalenka mentioned in a information convention earlier this week.
On social media, followers didn’t appear too impressed with the competitors.
US Open 2025 girls’s singles winner Aryna Sabalenka paid tribute to her opponent, Amanda Anisimova, after defeating her within the remaining. The World No. 1 tennis star, 27, efficiently defended the US Open championship that she initially gained final 12 months on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Queens, New York, on Saturday, September […]
“I’d like to know who determined this #battleofthesexes was a good suggestion,” mentioned one other consumer on X. “Who really seems to be good popping out of this? The 659th ranked participant in male tennis simply beat the Ladies’s world no 1 fairly comfortably ultimately regardless of the foundations being in her favour. What a farce.”
“A giant L for the ‘women and men are the identical’ crowd,” mentioned a completely different account on X. “The Battle of the Sexes 2025. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka VS. World No. 671 Nick Kyrgios (injured). They even gave her a smaller court docket. Kyrgios wins in straight units.”
The match used modified guidelines, limiting every participant to only one serve per level (as a substitute of two). Sabalenka’s aspect of the court docket was additionally 9 % smaller than Kyrgios’s.
“I like to problem myself and this can be a big problem, particularly taking part in towards Nick, a man who’s unpredictable and loopy,” Sabalenka advised reporters earlier than the match. “It’s nice coaching for me and a terrific message to the ladies on the market — I hope they are going to see how robust and difficult I’m by taking part in towards a man.”
