Sabalenka, Kyrgios Hint at ‘Battle of the Sexes’ Sequel

The Battle of the Sexes: Dubai Showdown last week between women’s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and men’s No. 671 Nick Kyrgios took a lot of heat online from the tennis media world, with Ben Rothenberg calling the match “deeply unnecessary” and writing that “everyone was a loser,” and José Morgado saying the court “looks absolutely awful on TV.” There were also technical difficulties with the broadcast on BBC and Tennis Channel.

But the participants appear keen on having a rematch.

Following the match on Dec. 28, Aryna Salabenka, who lost in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) to Nick Kyrgios, said she would “put myself out there again.” She gave a more definitive response Thursday while speaking to reporters.

“I would definitely do it again,” Sabalenka said. “I love revenges and I don’t like to leave it the way it is.”

Kyrgios, too, said at the postmatch press conference he would “happily do it again.” 

Sabalenka lost despite multiple special rule changes meant to even the playing field. The court was 9% smaller on Sabalenka’s side to cut the amount of ground for her to cover. Both players only had one serve instead of two in an attempt to curb Kyrgios’s service strength advantage.

Sabalenka suggested one more rule change for a possible sequel.

“I think for the next match, we’ll come up with a different format. Because you know, before the match, I didn’t realize that I’ll have to adjust as well and it was a bit tricky for me as well. I think I would keep the full court for Nick, but I would take two serves. I think that would even our level a bit more,” Sabalenka said.

There’s been no official confirmation that the two will have a rematch. Stuart Diguid of Evolve, the agency that manages both players, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

It’s unclear whether ratings for the match, which aired domestically on the Tennis Channel, will be made public. Sinclair Broadcast Group, parent company of the Tennis Channel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The event is a call back to several historic tennis matches between a man and a woman, most famously between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973, which King won. Riggs was 55 at the time of the match, while King was 29. Kyrgios is 30 and Sabalenka is 27.

Ilana Kloss, King’ wife and CEO of her business empire, told Front Office Sports in early December that she didn’t expect anyone to take the modern day match seriously. She said the two matches are not “in the same conversation” since the 1973 match had the backdrop of the recent passing of Title IX.

In a quote tweet of a video of Sabalenka suggesting a rematch, Rothenberg wrote Thursday: “Surely no one needs a rematch of that disaster, god forbid.” 

Sabalenka and Kyrgios have both pushed back on the criticisms of their match, arguing that the exhibition event helped grow the sport.

“I think it was an entertaining match,” Sabalenka said. “And yeah, he won this match, but I showed great tennis. It wasn’t like 6-0, 6-0. It was a great fight. …  I feel like we just brought more attention to our sport, and I don’t see how it can be bad, how you could talk negative about this. I think the idea behind it is to help our sport grow and show tennis from a different side: that tennis events can be more fun, more entertaining.” 

Kyrgios pointed the blame at the media for creating division between men’s and women’s athletes.

“I think the media needs to do a better job at stopping all this brainwashing of this division when there’s none at all,” Kyrgios said at the postmatch press conference. “You guys have the utmost control of what you feed people so I think you guys need to do a better job of that.” 

On Friday, Kyrgios quote-tweeted Rothenberg, doubling down on his willingness to hold a rematch: “IM IN.”