Nick Kyrgios beat Aryna Sabalenka 6‑3 6‑3 on Sunday in a “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match billed as a modern take on Billie Jean King’s famous win over Bobby Riggs over 50 years ago, but one that ignited controversy over its relevance and meaning.
The clash between four-times Grand Slam champion Sabalenka and former world number 13 Kyrgios was billed as entertainment but critics warned that it risked reducing women’s tennis to a sideshow and trivializing its progress toward equality.
The match that gave the event its name was the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” when women’s tennis pioneer King beat 55-year-old former Grand Slam winner Riggs, who had said that the standard of women’s tennis could never match that of the men’s game.
King told the BBC that although this year’s clash carried the same tagline, it lacked the stakes of her showdown with Riggs, a contest she described as a fight for social change in a vastly different cultural era.
“I don’t think many people would have put their hand up to be in this position, especially in my position,” Kyrgios said.
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