World number one Aryna Sabalenka and Australian Nick Kyrgios said they were excited about facing the unknown when they meet in Sunday’s “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match that has divided opinion in the tennis world.
Sunday’s showdown between four-times Grand Slam champion Sabalenka and former world number 13 Kyrgios is seen by many as entertainment, but critics believe it risks undermining women’s tennis by trivialising decades of progress toward equality.
The duo said they were not paying too much attention to the debate surrounding the contest at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena.
“This event is really unpredictable, and I don’t know what to expect,” Sabalenka told reporters on Saturday.
“That’s what I love because this is the feeling you chase when you play sport, these unpredictable situations, and I love to challenge myself. For me, it’s a huge challenge, especially playing Nick, the guy who’s unpredictable and crazy.
“That’s great training for me and that’s a great message to the girls out there. I hope they’re going to watch, and they’re going to see how strong and tough I am to have the guts to challenge myself to play against the guy.”
In the original 1973 “Battle of the Sexes”, women’s trailblazer Billie Jean King beat then 55-year-old former Grand Slam champion Bobby Riggs, who had maintained that women’s tennis was inferior to the men’s game.
King recently told the BBC that while the Dubai match shared the same banner it did not have as much riding on it as her clash with Riggs. Her contest was a battle for social change in a vastly different cultural era, she said.
Sabalenka agreed.
“They were trying to fight for different things. We’re here to bring tennis to another level, and to bring attention to our sport, to help our sport grow,” she said.
“I feel like women have already proved that we deserve equal and tomorrow, I’ll just show that we are capable of putting up a great fight against a man and have fun.”
INCREDIBLE THINGS
Kyrgios said the world needed more collaborative efforts like his match against Sabalenka.
“There’s too much division and too much fighting and not enough teamwork,” he added. “So regardless of the outcome, obviously I’m not saying I don’t want to win, but I want to win.
“I think it shows that we can do some pretty incredible things together in sport.”
While Riggs had retired from the men’s tour when he faced King, Kyrgios is still active player on the ATP circuit.
The former Wimbledon runner-up’s career has been dogged by injuries over the last few seasons, however, and he has played only five professional singles matches in 2025.
The best-of-three sets encounter will have modified rules, including one serve for each player and a slightly smaller court for Sabalenka, with a 10-point tiebreak settling the contest should it go into a decider.
“Just because the court is going to be shorter, he’s not going to go for bigger strokes, and I’ll be always in attacking mode,” Sabalenka said.
“That’s my power, my game and my strength … I’ve also got good touch and I have a bigger target to do fun things.”
