Male tennis player Nick Kyrgios has revealed that he and a female star who is currently competing at Wimbledon were “thinking about doing a ‘Battle of the Sexes’” later this year.
Kyrgios, 30, is currently out injured, after he was forced to pull out of Wimbledon and the French Open, having battled several injury problems in recent years.
In March, when playing his first match since January at the first round of Indian Wells, he retired hurt due to a wrist injury.
Meanwhile, an ongoing knee injury saw him miss Wimbledon, meaning the Australian has not appeared at the All England Club since reaching the tournament’s final in 2022, during which he was beaten by Novak Djokovic.
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But the 30-year-old is never far from the spotlight and has raised a few eyebrows with a recent suggestion of an intergender match with a female tennis star.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the Australian explained: "[Aryna] Sabalenka and I are thinking about doing a ‘Battle of the Sexes’ later in the year where the court is going to be slightly smaller for me, with one serve.
"So, we’re going to do it on a smaller court, a slightly smaller court I’m playing in, slightly smaller than the usual tennis court."
Rather than following the usual rules of games and sets, the pair would instead play eight-minute quarters, with the winner being the first to reach three.
"We get one serve, and we’re thinking about doing it later in the year in Hong Kong,” Kyrgios added.
"This is going to be something that I’m really nervous for, to be honest, because she’s in her absolute prime right now and she’s getting the wooden legs of me.
“But I’m still feeling confident that I’ll get her."
Sabalenka, 27, is currently ranked as the world number one by the WTA and boasts three Grand Slam titles – the 2023 Australian Open, 2024 Australian Open, and 2024 US Open.
UTS was established in 2023 with events taking place in London, Frankfurt and Los Angeles.
The event’s founder, Patrick Mouratoglou, previously coached Serena Williams, and explained the reasons for creating the tournament.
"We're going to do everything we can to get young people to come, obviously,” Mouratoglou told TNT Sports.
“And I think it's an innovation in the sense that we intend to let the audience express themselves completely, which is absolutely not the case in the classic tournaments. Because the things you hear the most are 'shhhh, please be quiet'.
"We're going to do the opposite and we're going to encourage people to express all their emotions because, in fact, for me, sport is pure emotion, and I think that players are capable of playing in noise. They are just not used to it."
Have ‘Battle of the Sexes’ happened before?
Yes, intergender tennis matches have taken place on several occasions.
On May 13, 1973, Bobby Riggs, a six-time major winner, faced Margaret Court, a 24-time major winner.
Court, who was 30 at the time, stepped in after being offered $20,000 and had only recently returned to the game following the birth of her child.
But Riggs won convincingly with a score of 6-2, 6-1.
Then, on September 20, 1973, Riggs faced another female star when he took on Billie Jean King in Houston.
And to the surprise of many, King won 6-4 6-3 6-3. However, it must be considered that Riggs was 55 and King was just 29.
Nineteen years later, a third ‘Battle of the Sexes’ took place between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova in Las Vegas.
A 40-year-old Connors beat a 35-year-old Navratilova 7-6 6-2.
Topics: Nick Kyrgios, Tennis, Wimbledon
Luke Davies