Published On 28 Dec 2025
In a 1973 exhibition match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King that bore little resemblance to the era-defining encounter between Bobby Riggs and the former Wimbledon finalist, Kyrgios won 6-3, 6-3.
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There was more at stake then, with King’s nascent women’s professional tour fighting for its legitimacy and prize money that women players won still much less than men did.
King, one of the greatest women’s players of all time and at her best when she was 29 years old, defeated the 55-year-old Riggs, a top player of his day, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in Houston, Texas, US.
In an effort to restrict Kyrgios’ power and speed advantage on Sunday in Dubai, the UAE, each player received just one serve and Sabalenka’s side of the court was nine percent smaller.
After only six ATP matches in the last three years, Kyrgios dropped to 671 in the rankings, but the 30-year-old Australian had enough to defeat Sabalenka, 27, who has previously won four Grand Slam singles titles.
After going 1-3 down, the maverick Australian was drenched in sweat and appeared out of breath in the second set, while his opponent danced to the music during a clever time out. After Belarusian Sabalenka sent a long shot, he managed to hold on and make it 3-3.
Kyrgios pulled away to win the game on serve before giving Sabalenka a warm embrace at the net while cheeky drop shots and other effective variations on his serve were used to shorten the points.
“I’ll admit, it was a really difficult match,” He claimed that she is a “hell of a competitor.”
She was putting the pressure on, and ultimately, it was a really close-fought battle, I had to buckle in.
A rematch would be something Sabalenka promised to “love.”
“I felt fantastic,” he said. I put on a fantastic fight. He was struggling. He was drowsy. She said, “I was happy to see that.”
Source: Aljazeera
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