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 through 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 title between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King gained that match, marking a historic second within the development of girls’s tennis.
The 2025 “Battle of the Sexes” didn’t fairly maintain the identical weight, having extra of an leisure really feel to it quite than a momentous, cultural and arguably political event.
Regardless of the loss, Sabalenka alluded to doubtlessly 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 techniques, his strengths and his weaknesses, and it’s going to be a greater match, for certain.”
Sabalenka’s play earned her some variety phrases from Kyrgios, who was visibly exhausted after the match.
Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios Getty Photos
“She’s an incredible athlete, when she was transferring facet to facet she was taking part in pictures that a number of the prime males play,” he mentioned on the courtroom after the match. “I’m not stunned, I’ve seen her play and now we have practiced a few occasions. She was proper there, it may have gone both approach.”
Kyrgios presently 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 assume many individuals would have put their hand as much as be on this place. The rating line was shut, I used to be below 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 yr, 18 months in the past. I’m glad to even be again out right here and play, actually it’s fairly emotional.”
Sabalenka, however, is ranked No. 1 on the ladies’s facet and is coming off a US Open championship.
“By placing myself on this scenario, taking part in a man, I’m inspiring the subsequent technology [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 ladies’s singles winner Aryna Sabalenka paid tribute to her opponent, Amanda Anisimova, after defeating her within the closing. The World No. 1 tennis star, 27, efficiently defended the US Open championship that she initially gained final yr 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 person on X. “Who really appears good popping out of this? The 659th ranked participant in male tennis simply beat the Ladies’s world number one 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 totally 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 courtroom. Kyrgios wins in straight units.”
The match used modified guidelines, proscribing every participant to only one serve per level (as an alternative of two). Sabalenka’s facet of the courtroom was additionally 9 p.c smaller than Kyrgios’s.
“I like to problem myself and this can be a large problem, particularly taking part in towards Nick, a man who’s unpredictable and loopy,” Sabalenka instructed reporters earlier than the match. “It’s nice coaching for me and an incredible 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.”
