{"id":35566,"date":"2025-12-28T08:44:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T13:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/aryna-sabalenka-vows-to-beat-nick-kyrgios-in-battle-of-the-sexes-match\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T08:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T13:44:33","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-vows-to-beat-nick-kyrgios-in-battle-of-the-sexes-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/aryna-sabalenka-vows-to-beat-nick-kyrgios-in-battle-of-the-sexes-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka vows to beat Nick Kyrgios in Battle of the Sexes match"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Aryna Sabalenka is pushing herself to the top in an exhibition match against Nick Kyrgios at &#8216;Battle of the Sexes&#8217; by experiencing the unknown in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>The women&#8217;s world number one will face Australian maverick Kyrgios on Sunday in a reenactment of one of the most famous tennis matches in history, when Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in 1973.<\/p>\n<p>In three-set matches, each player will be limited to one serve, the size of Sabalenka&#8217;s court will be reduced by 9 percent, and modified rules will be adopted that will include a 10-point tiebreak if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The Coca-Cola Arena rivals acknowledge Sabalenka is stepping into unfamiliar territory, but are confident in her chances and will suspend their off-court camaraderie for the day.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1227%2Fr1593997_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1227%2Fr1593997_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1227%2Fr1593997_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1227%2Fr1593997_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>When asked who would win, the 27-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion quickly replied:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This event is really unpredictable. You never know what&#8217;s going to happen. That&#8217;s what I love about it, the feeling of chasing when you play a sport.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love to challenge myself and it&#8217;s a big challenge, especially going up against Nick, an unpredictable and crazy guy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is great training for me and a great message to the girls. I want them to see how strong and tough I am by playing against the boys.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kyrgios has been limited to just five singles matches this year due to injuries, his most recent match being in March, and the 30-year-old is currently ranked 673rd in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Best tennis players of 2025: Alcaraz, Sabalenka, Sinner and more<br \/>&#8211; British number one Jack Draper to miss 2026 Australian Open due to arm injury <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen some pretty scary opponents in the past. I&#8217;m well equipped and I know Arena has some powerful weapons at her disposal,&#8221; Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I came here prepared. Anyone who knows me knows how unpredictable I am, but I&#8217;m as prepared as I can be. I feel like I&#8217;m going to win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never won a Grand Slam, but I&#8217;ve lost in a Grand Slam final. This is completely different and you don&#8217;t know how your body and mind will react.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a completely different energy. I&#8217;m definitely going to bring something different. My strength has always been unpredictability, even on the men&#8217;s tour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Players like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal have struggled to understand how to play with me at certain times, because even I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m going to do at certain times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to bring something she&#8217;s never seen before. I&#8217;m going to play a style of tennis that I know is effective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aryna Sabalenka is pushing herself to the top in an exhibition match against Nick Kyrgios at &#8216;Battle of the Sexes&#8217; by experiencing the unknown in Dubai. The women&#8217;s world number one will face Australian maverick Kyrgios on Sunday in a reenactment of one of the most famous tennis matches in history, when Billie Jean King [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[223,280,2614,149,285,148,224,6802,24,4770],"class_list":{"0":"post-35566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna","9":"tag-battle","10":"tag-beat","11":"tag-kyrgios","12":"tag-match","13":"tag-nick","14":"tag-sabalenka","15":"tag-sexes","16":"tag-tennis","17":"tag-vows"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}