Topics: Tennis, Nick Kyrgios
The exact amount of money that Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios were paid for the Battle of the Sexes match has been 'revealed'.
On Sunday afternoon, an exhibition tennis match between women’s world No. 1 Sabalenka and former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios took place under the banner of the fourth 'Battle of the Sexes' match in history.
The match took place in the 17,000 capacity Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai and generated huge interest online, with both positive and negative reactions to the event.
In the end, it was Kyrgios who came away as the champion, beating Sabalenka 6-3 6-3, despite admitting it was much harder than he had expected.
Advert
And now, it appears we finally have discovered how much each of the tennis stars have earned for taking part in the exhibition match.
The match was organised by the Evolve agency which represents both players, meaning the pair have taken part in a promotion tour together in the build-up to the match.
Of course, the massive build-up and the fact that the match sold out the arena, after the 17,000 capacity was reduced to 6,000 seats, lead many fans to question how much they were being paid to take part.
However, according to Evolve co-founder Stuart Duguid, via Ben Rothenberg's Bounces newsletter, there was no prize money involved in the match and instead they were simply playing for pride.
Rothenberg asked: “I assume there’s no prize money at stake for the winner of this? It’s just a pure ‘exhibition’?”
The Evolve co-founder replied: “Just for pride, yeah.”
Duguid also addressed the issue with Front Office Sport, adding: “The battle is for pride, curated by progressive innovation.”
In 1973, the original Battle of the Sexes match rewarded the winner of Bobby Riggs and Bilie Jean King $100,000 for winning.
Despite this, it is very likely that both Sabalenka and Kyrgios would have been compensated with large appearance fees.
Given the fact that the event took place in Dubai, it's almost certain that both players will have received a massive pay day for playing, although this is yet to be confirmed.
Regardless, the pair aren't exactly struggling financially as Sabalenka has pocketed $45million (£33.37m) in career prize money, earning $15m (£11.12m) in 2025 alone after winning the US Open and making the final of the Australian Open and French Open, with further income from sponsorship deals.
