An exhibition tennis match between the world’s top-ranked women’s player and a male opponent battling injuries wound up scoring points for advocates of sex-segregated sports.
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who sits at No. 671 in the ATP rankings, defeated No. 1 women’s player Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus by a score of 6-3, 6-3 at the Battle of the Sexes match Sunday in Dubai.
The event was billed as entertainment and used modified rules aimed at helping Sabalenka.
But the significance of the victory by a male competitor outside the top 500 over the best female player in the world still wasn’t lost on foes of transgender athletes in female sports.
“Injured guy ranked in the 600s still smokes the number one ranked women’s tennis player in the world,” Jennifer Sey, CEO of XX-XY Athletics, wrote in a post on X. “Should be the nail in the coffin for anyone arguing men don’t have any physical advantage and should compete in women’s sports if they claim to be women.”
Selwyn Duke, columnist for the Canada Free Press, declared that “boy, it was not a good night for feminism and the ‘transgender’ agenda.”
Kyrgios was no slouch — he was a 2022 singles finalist at Wimbledon — but the 30-year-old right-hander has discussed retirement after being plagued by wrist and knee injuries that have limited him to just six ATP tour-level matches in the last three seasons.
He has said he hopes to play in the 2026 Australian Open if he can secure a wild-card berth, although his performance against the 27-year-old Sabalenka may have set back his prospects.
Kyrgios sweated heavily during the match, raising questions about his fitness, yet still won in straight sets, even though Sabalenka’s side of the court was 9% smaller, giving him a tighter target.
Both players were also allowed only one serve instead of two, reducing the advantage of Kyrgios’s more powerful serve.
“A big L for the ‘men and women are the same’ crowd,” said author and investment banker John LeFevre on X. “World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka VS. World No. 671 Nick Kyrgios (injured). They even gave her a smaller court. Kyrgios wins in straight sets.”
Other comments included: “Kyrgios had a smaller court and was only allowed 1 serve. He still wiped the women’s #1,” and “This was designed as a humiliation ritual for men, but has backfired spectacularly. Hilarious!!”
Not sure why @SabalenkaA did this. But it certainly proves the point that men shouldn’t be in women’s sports. Guy ranked 600-something smokes #1 woman. https://t.co/9nZJeJw24p
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) December 28, 2025
The event was billed as a follow-up to the 1973 Battle of the Sexes, which saw 29-year-old Billie Jean King defeat 55-year-old Bobby Riggs in straight sets, a contest that was heralded as a watershed moment for women’s rights.
Before the latest match, King downplayed comparisons between the events, telling BBC Sport that the “only similarity is that one is a boy and one is a girl. That’s it.”
“Everything else, no. Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not,” she said, adding, “I hope it’s a great match – I want Sabalenka, obviously, to win – but it’s just not the same.”
The contest also came with the WTA pushing for equal pay for female players, who receive the same prize money as men in Grand Slam events, but not in other top tournaments.
The match’s outcome may not have helped the WTA’s cause. “This win also destroyed any equal pay argument,” said YouTube host Jon Root.
OutSports writer Shawn Laib said Sabalenka was in a “no-win situation.”
“Her loss will give fuel to the doubters that women shouldn’t get the same respect in the sport,” he said in a Monday article. “A win would have been equally pointless to that crowd because Kyrgios is a washed-up has-been who never accomplished anything in men’s tennis except entertaining people with his temper tantrums.”
Kyrgios insisted after the match that his victory was no cakewalk, saying, “I had to work for it, I had to sweat, I had to play, I had to run – like, it was not easy.”
“Let’s put that narrative out there rather than all of the negativity,” he said.
Sabalenka also defended the event, calling it an “amazing experience” that helped promote the game.
“I don’t understand how people were able to find something negative in this event,” said Sabalenka at the post-game press conference. “I was playing great tennis. It was an entertaining match. Yeah, he won the match, but I showed great tennis. It wasn’t like, 6-0, 6-0. It was a great fight.”
Both Sabalenka and Kyrgios are represented by the Evolve sports agency, which promoted the event.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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