Top Female Tennis Player Takes on No. 671 Man in 'Battle of the Sexes' - It Wasn't Even Close (She Lost)

The Western journal ^ | 12-29-25 | Bryan Chai

[MarlonRando]

The most recent iteration of the “Battle of the Sexes” only hammered that point home after the 671st-ranked male, Nick Kyrgios, beat the top-ranked female in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, on Sunday in the United Arab Emirates.

And, as Reuters noted, it wasn’t especially close, with Kyrgios winning 6-3, 6-3 in the highly publicized exhibition match at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.

[cherry]

Gee,men are physically stronger than women....this news?

[rollo tomasi]

CIGARETTES, BEATING THE WILLIAMS SISTERS, AND LIFE ACCORDING TO KARSTEN BRAASCH

From ATP

Karsten Braasch will forever be remembered as the man with the uncoachable serve, who smoked like a chimney, scared Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, and beat both the Williams sisters in the same afternoon. Braasch is a polite, intelligent man, but even at 33, his tennis days are far from over, as he proved last week at the Mallorca Open in doubles with partner Jens Knippschild. So what is it that keeps the German going? "I’m still having fun," he explains. But how on earth did he learn that remarkable serve, which sees him run, jump and launch his body at the ball in the most bizarre fashion? "I think everyone learns his own style," says Braasch. "Agassi, Sampras - nobody taught them to play the way they do. With me it was just a normal development, and as long as it is working, it doesn’t matter."

Sampras found out just how well it worked at Wimbledon in 1995. Returning as the defending champion for the second time, the American walked onto Centre Court for their first round encounter probably expecting to steamroller Braasch in about an hour.But the German played by his own rules, and with a mixture of delicate chips and thunderous drives he won the second set to level matters at one apiece, and looked capable of pulling off one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history. Digging deep, Sampras prevailed, but he paid tribute to his opponent. "He’s a pain to play," said Sampras. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena wouldn’t argue with that assessment. Their request for a male opponent at the 1998 Australian Open was met by the German, who had been on the golf course all morning.

This is how Braasch remembers the day: "They came into the ATP Office and said that they would like to play one of the men," said Braasch. "I just happened to be in the room and they were saying that they thought they could beat someone who was ranked 200 in the world. At the time I was No. 203 and I said: "If you think you can beat me, we can go out there right now." With Serena, the score was 6-1 and then Venus came and asked to play, and I said, ‘if you want to play, we can play’. That was 6-2." "When they first came in they were looking at the media guide because they had seen someone practicing who they thought they could beat, and they wanted to know who it was. It was Francisco Clavet. When they said that, there were 10 guys on the floor."

"Afterwards, Venus spoke to the press and said that maybe she could actually beat someone who was 350 in the world. But the thing is that I was due to lose all my points from the 1997 Australian Open the next week so I told the press "OK, we can do it again next week when I am 350 if you like!" But three years on he has no plans for a rematch. "I don’t think it’s necessary," he says. "I don’t think after that match that you heard anything about men and women’s tennis from the Williams sisters. Sometimes when I walk past them at a Grand Slam, they don’t say anything, maybe they don’t see me, but maybe they are a little bit embarrassed," he said. Braasch is known for having a rather unusual fitness regime to go with his unorthodox style of play. Generally smoking 15 cigarettes each day, and fond of having a beer or two (he admits to having drunk a couple of ‘shandies’ the morning of the match with the Williams sisters) Braasch showed that he could still compete with the best.

In a career spanning 14 years, he racked up wins over Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl among others, and his proudest moment was playing in the Davis Cup for Germany. At 33, he won’t be around forever, but retirement isn’t on the cards yet. "As long as I can still compete, and as long as people still want to watch me and don’t say ‘what’s this old guy doing out there?’ I will play," he said.

"I knew Jan-Michael has not played too well on clay in the past, so even before the match, I knew I had a good chance. I felt most of my shots were working. My forehand was a little short, but I hope I can improve on that."

[magua]

Absolutely it was rigged. Bobby Riggs was a known gambler. He went to Wimbledon. I think it was 1938 in and bet on himself to win the singles doubles and mixed doubles. He won all three walked away with almost $100,000. He also went through Margaret Court I believe in two sets. Billie Jean King was good but not that good.. I met him at a local restaurant in Mountainside New Jersey and he had two of his beautiful blonds with T-shirts that said sugar daddy on it and I was so tempted to ask him why Billie Jean King beat him? But that would be disrespectful to the owner.

[rollo tomasi]

It's news when top ranked female tennis players have grandiose delusions that they could beat a ranked male player in the ATP. That “gurl powah!!!” stuff only works in fiction and with simps.

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

Kyrigos had disadvantages. One serve (double fault is on a single serve), he hit a smaller target while she had a full target.

Also be noting that a power player plays differently than a serve-and-volley player. Players of the 1980’s to 1990’s were more serve-and-volley than the power game. Playing a serve-and-volley player who hits slower and is more agile is different than a power player as in today’s tennis. You have women hitting at 125 while men can go 150.

It’s akin to watching gridiron where a player who has a different style of offense plays differently than another style of offense.

Put a serve-and-volley male against a power female (125 MPH), and you can see the difference. Serve and volley has become a dinosaur compared to the backcourt players who can jam it at speeds approaching an INDYCAR at Milwaukee (the slowest oval).

[ReganFan4ever]

Maybe if she plays against a weaker opponent like Jannik Sinner she could beat him. /s

[ComputerGuy]

One of my girlfriends in DC played in a women’s fastpitch softball league. Many of the pitchers were big strong dykes. Some of them could bring it, although they weren’t as fast as men.

[Texas resident]

When I was in 6th grade (12 years old) we had a field day at the end of school. A pick up basketball game started up. My 6th grade teacher, about 25 years old, had played girls HS basketball.
She couldn’t keep up with the 12 years old boys.

[mewzilla]

Possibly not.

Both were a similar height, within a couple of inches, and BJK looked even more muscled, better conditioned to me.

[alternatives?]

We need to find satisfying jobs for these people instead of just paying them off. We need to restore the incentives for them to stay in families.

It doesn’t make sense to have such wealth disparity at the CEO level however the government doesn’t do a good job at redistributing income. The problem is, most CEO’s don’t do a good job either.

[mewzilla]

My hubby, who saw the game and played for fun, said BJK was a better player than day than Riggs.

She outplayed him.

[mewzilla]

People forget he had recently played and beat Margaret Court, and he had over 20 years on Court.

Were both matches rigged...?

[MarlonRando]

It’s a shame we have to even worry about things like that. I wish we could just be left alone. We could have condos on Neptune by now.

[bray]

Every HollyWierd movie has a 120 lb woman beating up a 220 lb man.

[Varsity Flight]

Just take a look at some of his “plays”
Looks definitely like a champion attempting a con job over for the mob.
I could describe each “shot” in detail and nearly prove it.

https://youtu.be/I5dFdiT90h8?si=PI5qe9uHtsOrhXHV

[Varsity Flight]

Perfect set up for the 💰💰

[IndispensableDestiny]

Billie Jean King was 29 years old, while Bobby Riggs was 55 years old. Margaret Court, who Riggs easily beat earlier in the year, was 31.

[Varsity Flight]

And no comparison in the play of Riggs here:

https://youtu.be/yZ77bbaYCv0?si=tAt29C5kqGyeQOHW

[Varsity Flight]

99 career titles, The Open Championship and Wimbledon.
Around the block.

[NorthMountain]

King was in her prime ... Riggs was a has-been.

And it was still rigged.