It is a truth universally acknowledged that paying attention to Nick Kyrgios is only justifiable when he has achieved something noteworthy. Upsetting world number one Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon as a teenager in 2014? Remarkable. Reaching the Wimby final eight years later? We all stayed up to watch. Winning the Australian Open doubles with his mate Kokki that same year? Thanks for the fun ride.
Skulking on the sidelines under a hoodie or lobbing grenades on social media? Pass. Taking on Aryna Sabalenka in yet another “Battle of the Sexes” match? Bit sad, really. You could have been a contender, Nick. For a while there you were a contender. Now you are in danger of being typecast as Sideshow Bob.
The battle of the sexesCredit: Matthew Absalom-Wong
The Sabalenka-Kyrgios exhibition, to be staged in Dubai on December 28 (early Monday morning, AEDT) in an arena carrying the name of a teeth-rotting soft-drink, will not be tennis as we know it. Modified rules – including a slightly smaller court on her side of the net and only one serve per point – are designed to give the women’s number one player a slight advantage in her contest against the 30-year-old Australian who has played five ATP singles matches this year (winning just one) and has a world ranking around 673.
The most enthusiastic spruikers of the event have been, unsurprisingly, Sabalenka and Kyrgios. She reckons she is in a “win-win position”, and argues the shebang will lift women’s tennis to a higher level. He says he will put on a show and their post-game handshake will solidify the union between men and women in the tennis world. If he loses? No big deal.
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Critics have been both various and voluble. Billie Jean King, the grande dame of women’s tennis, has decried comparisons made with her showdown against Bobby Riggs over half a century ago. King told the BBC she played (and beat) Riggs in 1973 match to make a point about women’s rights and equality in sport. Now? “The only similarity is that one is a boy and one is a girl. That’s it. Everything else? No.” Still, she hopes Sabalenka wins.
Former French Open and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza believes it is more about showbiz than a battle of the sexes. That fight, she says, is a no-contest, arguing that even when she was world No.1 a top male junior player could have beaten her. Roger Rasheed, a one-time coach of Lleyton Hewitt, among others, has decried it as insulting and can see no benefit for Sabalenka.
It is no coincidence that the event is being promoted by a management company with both Kyrgios and Sabalenka as clients. He will benefit more than her. The two-time Australian Open title-holder (and runner-up this year) is also the reigning US Open champion. She has grown accustomed to packed houses, finals and the eye-watering cheques handed out afterwards. Kyrgios? Not so much. His last (and only) major singles final was at Wimbledon in 2022, after an ailing Nadal forfeited their semi.
Herein lies one of many differences between Dubai and King-Riggs in 1973. Riggs is often recalled as a 55-year-old hustler doing it all for dough. Often forgotten is the fact he had been world No.1 and also a Wimbledon and US Open champion. The Kyrgios CV looks thin by comparison. Yes, Kyrgios is 25 years younger than Riggs was but the Australian has played only one grand slam singles match over the past three years, which he lost.
