British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Battle of the Sexes - Sabalenka and Kyrgios

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Saw that on the Beeb site earlier. Couldn't care less. Shan't be watching. disbelief

9vicman · Futures level

Here is a very interesting take: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/06/bbc-showing-tenniss-new-battle-of-the-sexes-will-just-offer-up-opportunity-to-belittle-womens-sport

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

9vicman wrote:
Here is a very interesting take: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/06/bbc-showing-tenniss-new-battle-of-the-sexes-will-just-offer-up-opportunity-to-belittle-womens-sport

I agree - it resonates a bit like when Karsten Braasch played was it Venus and Serena and won 6-1 and 6-2 respectively. Braasch was a bit like a kyrgios figure - smoked, arrogant, flashy game, big mouth. They were always on a hiding to nothing. Braasch was semi retired, ranked 203 at the time. Came to the match having played a round of golf just before and droning two pints of beer. So it was reported. And won. And of course it fed the misogynist haters and their message, and didnt do womens tennis any good.

the story had been before that womens top players could beat any player ranked outside the top 200; Braasch took up the challenge and thrashed them. The story became that hed deliberately played like someone ranked 650 to give them a chance.

If Sabalenka loses it will feed the same rhetoric. If she wins, it doesnt matter as people will just say Nick is washed up, unfit. Etc etc.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

9vicman wrote:
Here is a very interesting take: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/06/bbc-showing-tenniss-new-battle-of-the-sexes-will-just-offer-up-opportunity-to-belittle-womens-sport

Sabalenka hits back!

telstar · Club Coach

If Nick tries hard (very unlikely) I would expect him to win with considerable ease. Far more likely is that he will joke around and win in a match tie break! I hope that there will be some odds available!

emmsie69 · Masters Series Champion

telstar wrote:
If Nick tries hard (very unlikely) I would expect him to win with considerable ease. Far more likely is that he will joke around and win in a match tie break! I hope that there will be some odds available!

He's going to really have to tank to take it to a tiebreak, 6-0 6-0 in under 15 minutes would be my prediction if he was playing at anything around 50% or above.

Obviously not Tennis related but this shows the advantage Males have in Athletics BoysVsWomen.com

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Thursday 11th of December 2025 08:25:50 PM

foobarbaz · Club Coach

It's just an opportunity to generate some money isn't, it certainly isn't a meaningful sporting event. It'll be mentioned for years in the media, but mean nothing. To me it's not far off being the same as mixed doubles, cause in a match, it always seems like the pair that's determined to win will target the weakest opposing player 80% of the time.