No day in the history of women’s sports is more important than September 20, 1973.
Despite the flamboyant spectacle of Billie Jean King being wheeled into the Astrodome in a horse-drawn carriage by barely clothed men and offering a piglet to Bobby Riggs as a symbol of xenophobia, tennis’s iconic “Battle of the Sexes” is remembered as a watershed moment in the fight to legitimize female athletes in the eyes of a male-dominated culture, and rightly so.
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With Title IX passed the previous year and the WTA Tour established a few months earlier, 90 million people around the world watched King’s victory on television. That turned her into a global superstar. This proved that women’s tennis was a commercial enterprise and opened the door for similar activities in other women’s sports. In many ways, this movement accelerated the women’s liberation movement into homes and workplaces across the country.
“(It) was really political,” King told BBC Sport in a recent interview. “Culturally, what that entailed was tough. I knew I had to beat him to change society. There were a lot of reasons to win.”
For comparison’s sake, the next Battle of the Sexes on December 28, 2025, oh no, that’s not going to happen.
Instead, the match between world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios, played in Dubai among other things, is a blatantly cynical, agency-rigged money grab that is just representative of the cultural rot of social media and the same addiction to pointless theatrics that give overstimulated brains the hit of dopamine they needed when they woke up this morning.
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“Empty, disingenuous and reckless, it’s still as pointless and pointless as ever,” longtime commentator and soon-to-be International Tennis Hall of Famer Mary Carrillo wrote in an email to Yahoo Sports. “But in a broader sense, it’s like a stupid doodle that’s useless and invalidating.”
It may seem disingenuous, but it also raises serious questions. Given that women’s tennis is long past the stage where gimmicks are needed to attract attention, would it potentially damage the world’s No. 1 player and four-time Grand Slam champion if she were to lose to the touts of the Tennis Carnival, which has been playing six competitive matches since early 2023?
Sports agency Evolve, which represents both athletes and organizes the event, is promoting the match as a tribute to the events of 1973.
But that’s not only ridiculous on its face, it’s completely unnecessary.
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First of all, this isn’t even a real tennis match. King and Riggs played in a standard best-of-five set format, which was a big factor in what made King’s 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win so meaningful – the court dimensions were changed for this match, reducing Sabalenka’s space at the net by about 9 percent. Also, both players will only serve once, but Kyrgios, one of the greatest servers in tennis history, will be forced to play a little safer, which will probably work in her favor.
Therefore, even if Sabalenka wins, the revised rules will ensure that she will be automatically awarded an asterisk.
“This is more of a show. It has nothing to do with the battle of the sexes or what Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs means,” former number one Garbiñe Muguruza recently said on the Spanish podcast COPE.
Billie Jean King is carried onto the court by four men for a men’s and women’s tennis match against Bobby Riggs. (Getty Images)
(Bettman via Getty Images)
To be honest, there’s also misogyny in everything, starting with where the games are held.
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Although the UAE constitution guarantees equal rights in areas such as education, employment, and property, human rights organizations have identified several areas of concern that do not provide equal protection for women and are not consistent with Western values, particularly regarding domestic violence and family law.
There is also the issue of Kyrgios.
In 1973, Riggs was a 55-year-old country club hustler whose gardener Archie Bunker-esque chauvinism was cartoonish and reflective of a society in transition.
Kyrgios reflects modern society’s thirst for circus, from his on-court blunders to his incredible but largely wasted talent, from his guilty plea in Australia where he pushed his ex-girlfriend to the pavement during an argument in 2021 (the judge in the case did not record a guilty verdict) to the 2024 episode in which he had to disavow being a self-proclaimed misogynist and controversial influencer. Andrew Tate spoke out about his social media activity, which caused complaints during Wimbledon, while working as a BBC anchor.
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At the moment, with Kyrgios’ tennis career on the back burner, it’s hard to escape the feeling that this is his last shot at a huge payday in a hollow means that accomplishes nothing more than once again proving his ability to attract attention.
“In today’s day and age, no matter what we do, there’s always negative noise. There’s always people trying to tear us apart,” he said in an interview with UK-based talkSPORT. “I have a lot of respect for Alina. We have a good friendship, and it’s in good hands. We go to the match to compete and we’re entertainers, so we’re going to have fun, but we want to play hard matches. That’s it. She’s the No. 1 player in the world and very talented. Millions of people are going to watch this. If I don’t get off to a good start, it’s going to feel like the world is on my shoulders.”
“Think about all the good things that are going to happen.”
It might be good for his bank account. But what about tennis? Is it because of the popularity of women’s sports? To improve women’s rights in the Middle East?
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please.
“It’s very funny to see some people say that,” Sabalenka said on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show. “We’re going to take our sport to the next level, we’re going to bring a show, and the attention this event has gotten over the past few months has been incredible. We’re going to compete, we’re going to fight, and it’s going to explode our sport even more.”
Indeed, if you believe that all attention is good attention.
But the benefit of being a top-ranked female tennis player in 2025 is that you don’t have to do any of this. Thanks to the foundation King laid for the WTA Tour and his push for equal prize money at the Grand Slams, Sabalenka earned $15 million on court this year alone. Women’s tennis can stand alone as the premier sport in almost any country in the world.
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In fact, the whole point of what Dr. King accomplished on that day in 1973 was to build a sustainable sport so that women would never have to do that again to gain respect as athletes.
It is unfortunate, but appropriate, to reduce that legacy to crass commercialism and social media commentary.
“The only similarity is that one is a boy and one is a girl,” King said. “That’s it. I hope it’s a great fight. I obviously want Sabalenka to win. It’s just not the same.”
