{"id":92885,"date":"2025-09-06T08:38:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=92885"},"modified":"2025-09-06T08:38:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:38:39","slug":"sabalenka-keen-to-play-kyrgios-in-exhibition-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=92885","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka keen to play Kyrgios in exhibition event"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 48 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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World number one Aryna Sabalenka says, \u201cI\u2019ll try my best to kick his ass\u201d if a proposed \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019-style match with Nick Kyrgios goes ahead.<\/p>\n

Discussions have taken place about the event between Sabalenka and the former Wimbledon finalist, although a date and venue have not been decided.<\/p>\n

Belarus\u2019 Sabalenka, 27, and 30-year-old Australian Kyrgios \u2013 ranked 651st in the world \u2013 share the same agent.<\/p>\n

Stuart Duguid, who founded the Evolve agency which represents the pair and former world number one Naomi Osaka, is behind the plan, sources have told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a cool idea and will be spectacular to watch. It\u2019s going to be fun, especially against someone like Nick,\u201d Sabalenka said after reaching the US Open final.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike he said in another interview, I genuinely think that I\u2019m going to win and I\u2019ll definitely go out there and I\u2019ll try my best to kick his ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending US Open champion Sabalenka will bid for the fourth Grand Slam singles title of her career on Saturday, having also won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios, who reached a career high of 13th in 2016, has only played five matches this year since returning from a serious wrist injury\u00a0that kept him out for 18 months.<\/p>\n

He has not played on the ATP Tour since losing in the Miami Open second round in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a good thing if I\u2019m able to [beat] him, but we are not sure about the place,\u201d Sabalenka added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to bring it, we\u2019re going to bring it to somewhere where it\u2019s going to be a lot of people watching and we\u2019re gonna put a lot of pressure on Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three official matches labelled as the \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 have taken place \u2013 most famously between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973.<\/p>\n

American veteran Riggs beat Australia\u2019s Margaret Court before King exacted revenge four months later.<\/p>\n

In 1992, 40-year-old Jimmy Connors beat fellow Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova, 35, under hybrid rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SabalenkaWorld number one Aryna Sabalenka says, “I’ll try my best to kick his ass” if a proposed ‘Battle of the Sexes’-style match with Nick Kyrgios goes ahead.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8024,8025,10,9,1957],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aryna-sabalenka","category-nick-kyrgios","category-politics","category-popular","category-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}