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Swiatek rejects 'Battle of Sexes,' backs mixed team events
Gulf Today
|January 04, 2026
World number two Iga Swiatek said women's tennis was strong enough to thrive without controversial gender-based singles matches like the recent "Battle of the Sexes" between Nick Kyrgios and Aryna Sabalenka.
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Former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios defeated women's world number one Sabalenka 6-3 6-3 in the Dubai exhibition on Sunday despite several rule tweaks implemented by the organisers to level the playing field.
Critics had warned that the match, a nod to the 1973 original "Battle of the Sexes" in which women's trailblazer Billie Jean King downed the then 55-year-old former Grand Slam winner Bobby Riggs, risked trivialising the women's game.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek said she chose not to watch the Dubai contest, which King said lacked the stakes of her historic clash and critics dismissed as a publicity stunt and cash grab.
"It attracted a lot of attention. It was entertainment, but I wouldn't say that had anything to do with social change or any important topics," Swiatek told reporters at the season-opening mixed team United Cup in Sydney.
This story is from the January 04, 2026 edition of Gulf Today.
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