Battle of the Sexes: Can women beat men in tennis? Aryna Sabalenka, Nick Kyrgios reignite a decades-old debate

Set to play in front of a packed house in Dubai on December 28, Sabalenka, 27, and Kyrgios will add fuel to a decades-old debate in the sport. With women’s tennis being the most famous, fully commercialised women’s sport, can women really beat men in a professional match?

The Battle of the Sexes

The original ‘Battle of the Sexes’ experiment goes back 50 years.

Back then, former World No. 1 Bobby Riggs, then 55, had been a vociferous critic of women’s tennis. He defeated the women’s World No. 1 Margaret Court in straight sets. Four months later, American legend Billie Jean King, then 29, defeated him in three sets.

With the age gap considered a natural compromise for the biological disparities in strength, King’s victory held deep significance given the fight that she led at the time to create greater gender equality in the sport. She eventually proved to be the guiding light for the creation of the modern Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

But the tennis battle between man and woman held interest long after. It was reignited when a 40-year-old Jimmy Connors took on the 35-year-old Martina Navratilova, with caveats: Connors was only given one serve, and Navratilova was allowed to hit into the doubles alleys too. Connors still won in straight sets.

The 2025 version has been born less out of a fight for equality or between two greats of the game, and more from the prospect of pure commercial promise. Evolve, the management agency that represents both Sabalenka and Kyrgios and is co-owned by Naomi Osaka, has spearheaded the event.

Biological advantages

There is a significant disparity in strength. Not only do men hold more power from the baseline, but that power manifests itself in the variations of spins that they apply on the ball, for which women, whose baseline groundstrokes are often far flatter, have no answer. Men serve far quicker: the fastest recorded modern-day serve on the men’s tour is John Isner’s strike of 157.2 miles per hour, compared to 131 mph by Sabine Lisicki on the women’s tour. Coaches and players have often pointed out the distinct speed differences in lateral movement — side-to-side — which allow men to reach balls and open up the court much more easily.

Evolve’s version, like Connors vs Navratilova, will make concessions to adjust for the biological differences. The three-set match — with the third set, if needed, being a 10-point tiebreaker — will only allow first serves, attempting to take away Kyrgios’ advantage on the first strike. After commissioning studies and realising men, on an average, are 9% quicker in movement than women, Sabalenka’s side of the court has been shrunk by 9%.

But will that be enough?

Serena Williams, alongside sister Venus, has experience playing against men as part of a developmental strategy their father and coach came up with in their early years. They were often goaded into trying their hand at beating men’s players in the heyday of their dominance on the women’s tour, but stayed away. Speaking on an American talk show back in her playing days, Serena said: “Men’s tennis and women’s tennis are almost two separate sports. If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0… The men are a lot faster, they serve harder, and they hit harder. It’s just a different game.”

But concerns of a reputational damage to Sabalenka led to divided opinions on the sporting merits of this event among the tennis cognoscenti. After all, Kyrgios is a part-time journeyman whose best days are behind him, and who never came close to the success of the World No. 1 women’s player.

Kyrgios has said that he will not even “need to be 100 per cent” to beat Sabalenka, while the latter said “I genuinely think that I’m going to win… I’ll try to kick his ass.” With interest among viewers high, both will certainly be handsomely rewarded.