Nick Kyrgios won tennis’s latest Battle of the Sexes, against Aryna Sabalenka, but it was hardly a win for anyone in Dubai in a match that lurched alarmingly between exhibition and gimmick to out-and-out circus act.
The Australian, who has played only one competitive singles match since the 2022 season and had fallen to No. 671 in the world rankings, was perspiring heavily and breathing hard as early as the fifth game of his tour match. There was no great surprise, certainly, when his super power serve and belter groundstrokes did for the women’s No 1.
“It was a really tough match,” the 30-year-old Kyrgios insisted after his 6-3, 6-3 win. “I had no idea what to expect. She got into my serve a few times and to be honest she was playing great shots. Hell of a competitor. It could have gone one way or the other.”
Nick Kyrgios has beaten Aryna Sabalenka 6–3, 6–3 in a bizarre and controversial ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match, capped by a BBC apology after a technical fault cut the broadcast.
Kyrgios closed it out despite late resistance from Sabalenka. #Kyrgios #Sabalenka pic.twitter.com/ODmwGkipaA
— BPI News (@BPINewsOrg) December 28, 2025
Not many saw it that way. For although the new rules of this contest had reduced the size of Sabalenka’s side of court by 9%, that benefit was outweighed because both players were also restricted to only one serve, a shift which saw Kyrgios as firm favourite. Nearly every time the Australian fizzed down one of his howitzers, Sabalenka scurried along the baseline. And while she clocked plenty of winners, to say nothing of jogging better than her opponent, there was always the reality that Kyrgios could raise his game when he chose.
The key point in the opening set arrived with the Belarusian serving at 40-15 ahead and the score locked at 3-3. Just when she had appeared to be in control, she then double faulted twice. Kyrgios sensed blood. Soon he’d broken, held serve and closed the set.
Kyrgios, 24, then became distracted as he fell behind 3-1 in the second set. But for all his lack of movement, Tent Brules was able to muscle control with a blend of power and junk tennis — particularly from sliced forehands that had the 27-year-old rushing awkwardly towards the net. And before there knew it, he was the possessor of a five-game winning streak to close things out.
But this was mostly a tennis match for people who don’t particularly like the sport. In one changeover in the second, Sabalenka did the Macarena. Later in the tournament, the public announcer pulled tennis balls out of a Ralph Lauren bag. On the other hand, on match point Kyrgios took a 60-second timeout simply to catch his breath.
There was also a wait earlier in the evening for the stadium PA to announce that Brazil’s former footballers Kaká and Ronaldo were entering. For a competition that had been specifically calibrated to draw in the TikTok crowd it felt an odd decision.
It was a stark contrast to the celebrated 1973 Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Granted, Riggs was 55 years old and many miles past his prime. But the stakes couldn’t have been higher.
King had worried that if she won, it wouldn’t mean anything. If she lost, it would take women’s tennis back 50 years. But with every swing of her Wilson Autograph racket, King landed a powerful punch for fairness, equality and social justice.
The Guardian wrote: “The sort of crushing, tactical and technical and psychological victory that should keep the male chauvinists quiet for a considerable time. It also popularized tennis in a way that no ordinary match could.
The reaction on social media in the wake of Kyrgios’s win suggested that far from settle a score, this latest match had done exactly the opposite. The incels and misogynists were ecstatic. Tennis purists appalled.
But Kyrgios, whose condition appeared below what is needed for five-set matches at the Australian Open, said it can only help take the game forward.
“This is great form from which to build on the sport of tennis,” he said, then floated the idea of a rematch. “This is what the entire world was talking about for six months.”
Sabalenka also said she would like to do it again. “I think I gave a great fight,” she said. “He was fighting, he was getting very tired. I feel like next time I play him, I know the strategy and his strengths and weaknesses.”
But in the end the match told us what we already know. Guys have all the advantages that come from puberty: they’re faster, stronger and more powerful.
It was shown live on BBC but it did cut out three times for “loss of pictures” in the second set — a source of embarrassment. Previously, its analysts, Russell Fuller and Annabel Croft, also came over as if they were in a defensive mood when talking up the exhibition format of the match Kyrgios’s past – including violence after he assaulted an ex-girlfriend – and the fact that it was overseen by the Evolve player agency which looks after Kyrgios and Sabalenka.
