Kyrgios-Sabalenka battle of the sexes match harms equality argument

Aryna Sabalenka has done a massive and arrogant disservice to female athletes around the world.

The women’s world No.1 unsurprisingly lost 6-3 6-3 in a highly publicised“battle of the sexes” exhibition match to Nick Kyrgios — a player who, at his peak, reached No. 13 in the world, but who sits outside the top 1200 and has admitted he doesn’t train and doesn’t particularly care

This match - played on a modified court in Dubai - did nothing for women athletes who have fought for equal pay, respect, and opportunity. Instead, it has reinforced the tired, lazy narrative that women’s sport is inherently inferior to men’s.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth, even if she had somehow beaten the Aussie firebrand, it wouldn’t have helped the cause.

Beating a man who doesn’t train, doesn’t compete, and doesn’t take the sport seriously isn’t some great feminist victory. There was never going to be a winner here - except Sabalenka’s bank account.

So how exactly was anyone else supposed to benefit from this?

Training with men, by the way, is common in women’s sport, and often incredibly valuable. Many female runners train with men who are naturally faster, pushing them closer to their physical limits. When I was part of the Hockeyroos preparing for the Olympics, we trained weekly against an under-18 men’s side.

Sometimes we won. Sometimes we lost.

At the time, we were the world’s No. 2 team. Were those teenage boys better than us? If you only looked at the scoreboard on the days we lost, you might argue they were. But anyone who watched and actually understood the game knew better.

They weren’t anywhere near as skilled as we were and their game IQ didn’t come close to ours. But what they did have were six-foot-plus frames, raw speed and power we could never match. A single mistake could mean a goal, because we couldn’t catch them. A poorly timed shot could beat our goalkeeper because it came off a stick with force no woman could produce.

That didn’t make them better, it made them men.

I’d argue the greatest moments in sport aren’t about pure power or speed, they are based on skills and smarts. They’re the beautiful moments of outplaying your opponent under pressure and finding a way to win.

That is the argument female athletes have been making for decades.

Women’s sport is not men’s sport. It’s different. It’s the same but it’s different.

And if you turn up expecting it to look the same, you’ll always be disappointed.

I love watching women’s tennis and not seeing serve after serve fly past untouched. I love the rallies, the breaks of serve, the closeness, the tension, the elements that men’s tennis often doesn’t provide in the same way

I love Sabalenka too. She is strong, fierce, and exciting. She represents much of what is powerful about women’s sport.

But this time she missed the mark and set the argument for equality back years.