Did we learn anything about Aryna Sabalenka from the Battle of the Sexes?

The original Battle of the Sexes wasn’t necessarily hugely informative from a sporting perspective – Bobby Riggs was in his mid-fifties and thirty years removed from his sporting prime – but it had huge symbolic significance. Riggs had been venomous in his dismissal of the women’s game and was humbled by Billie Jean King, with her victory doing much for the reputation of what was then a fledgling women’s tour that would go on to become the WTA Tour.

When Arnya Sabalenka took on Nick Kyrgios, their match was played out in very different circumstances. Rather than being a nascent organisation, the WTA Tour represents probably the most high profile women’s sport in the world, with its athletes having (belatedly) achieved equal pay with the male counterparts at the sport’s mixed events.

Sabalenka herself earned over $15 million in prize money alone last season and has career earnings north of $45 million. Her financial earnings matter because it illustrates the financial strength and raised profile of the women’s game, which hardly needed this exhibition to find a new audience. That also enabled Sabalenka and Kyrgios to play just for pride, but it’s not entirely clear whether Sabalenka’s pride will have been burnished by the events in Abu Dhabi.

She was beaten which was probably inevitable. The loss of her first serve may or may not have helped her cause, but Kyrgios’ advantage in power and speed was never likely to be surmountable for Sabalenka. One suspects that the difference in court size, with Sabalenka’s side 9% smaller, was likely no more than a distraction and certainly seemed to have little impact on Kyrgios. Indeed, the Australian seemed to be playing within himself for much of the match, which his again hardly a surprise given he’s barely played a competitive match over the last two years.

So what did Sabalenka actually get out of the match? She may have appeared in a few more headlines than is usual during the off-season, but as the world #1 she already has a huge international profile and it would be a major surprise to learn that this match had meaningfully moved the dial in that respect. That leaves only the competitive element and it again seems unlikely that Sabalenka gained much from the exercise in that respect.

For a host of reasons, her match against Kyrgios will not have much in common with any of her assignments over the coming year. It may even have distracted from her preparations for the 2026 season and, at the very least, one suspects she would have been better served by playing in more similar conditions to those she will face at the Australian Open.

That’s not to say that this ‘Battle of the Sexes’ will have undermined her hopes of winning another Australian Open. But it does reflect the fact that both from a symbolic and a sporting perspective, there was no real value to the match in Abu Dhabi.