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Tennis tournaments are normally transparent about prize money, but that doesn’t appear to be the case for the Battle of the Sexes: Dubai Showdown.
Stuart Duguid, the agent for both Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios, told Front Office Sports that they are “not discussing the economics” of the match. Duguid and women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka are the founders of sports agency EVOLVE, one of the organizers for the modern day Battle of the Sexes.
“The battle is for pride, curated by progressive innovation,” Duguid said in an email.
Sabalenka, the women’s world No. 1, will face Kyrgios, the men’s world No. 652, in a three-set exhibition on Dec. 28 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. The event is a revival of past Battle of the Sexes matches, most notably between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973, which had a $100,000 winner-take-all prize.
In 1992, Jimmy Connors faced Martina Navratilova in another Battle of the Sexes match which had a $500,000 winner-take-all prize.
While it’s unclear whether there will be a purse for the winner of the match between Sabalenka and Kyrgios, it’s likely that the two will receive appearance fees for the exhibition.
The Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament last month in Riyadh awarded a $1.5 million “participation fee” to each of its six participants, while Jannik Sinner took home an additional $4.5 million for winning the tournament.
The Laver Cup, another tennis exhibition that pits Team Europe against Team World, awards $250,000 per player on the winning team on top of an undisclosed participation fee that goes up depending on ATP ranking.
The modern day Battle of the Sexes comes at a time of heightened discussion around equal pay between men and women tennis professionals. In 2023, the WTA announced plans to equal pay with the men at combined 1000 events starting 2027, which would mirror all four tennis Grand Slams.
Kyrgios has voiced opposition with the equal pay structure, particularly at Grand Slams where men play best-of-five sets compared to best-of-three for the women.
“I played for four hours at the A.O. (Australian Open), then (Elina) Svitolina played for like 40 minutes and we both got paid the same,” Kyrgios told The Athletic in 2023.
His match against Sabalenka this December will be best-of-three, and will even feature rule changes aimed to “level the playing field,” according to Duguid.
For instance, the dimensions of Sabalenka’s side of the court will be smaller than Kyrgios’s.
“The science shows that women move on average about 9% slower than men, so we have adjusted the court on Aryna’s side of the net to reflect that,” Duguid says.
Each player will also be limited to one serve, which aims to neutralize Kyrgios’s serve strength. Most tournaments allow for two serves, giving players a second chance to serve if their initial serve is ruled a fault. Players normally start with powerful serves, then switch to a more risk-averse if they need to serve again.
“This is about respect, rivalry and re-imaging what equality in sport can look like,” Duguid says.
That’s a far cry from 1973, when a then-55-year-old Riggs, a top men’s pro in the 1940s, downplayed the abilities of female pros, particularly after he defeated Margaret Court, another top women’s player, in May 1973.
In September 1973, King, then the top-ranked women’s player, famously defeated Riggs. King’s official site today reads that her win “launched her fight for parity into the worldwide limelight.”
Riggs died in 1995. In 2013, ESPN reported a story on claims that Riggs threw the match to pay a $100,000 gambling debt. King called the story “ridiculous” and said Riggs gave his full effort.
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