"My fight was truly political," Billie Jean King compares the 1973 Battle of the Sexes to the Kyrgios-Sabalenka duel
On December 28th in Dubai, Nick Kyrgios and Aryna Sabalenka will face off. The Australian and the current world number 1 on the WTA tour will compete in the "Battle of the Sexes" exhibition. A match that is already making a lot of noise in the tennis world.
However, this is not the first time such a match has taken place. In 1973, Billie Jean King challenged Bobby Riggs. The American champion, however, is keen to emphasize that it is really difficult to compare the two matches, played in two very different eras.
"Our match was about social and cultural change"
"The only similarity is that there is a boy and a girl. That's it. Our match was about social and cultural change, where we were in 1973. That is not the case here. I hope it will be a great match, I obviously want Sabalenka to win, but it's simply not the same thing.
I played on a court and I didn't change anything. I told Bobby (Riggs): 'Listen, I play full out or I don't play.' And Bobby loved that. My fight was truly political. It was difficult, culturally, and everything that came with it. I knew I had to beat him for society to change. I had many reasons to win.
"We never said we were better than men"
I don't know if this match will harm Aryna (Sabalenka)'s reputation. I'll have to ask her after the match, but we never said we were better than men. We talked about our value in terms of entertainment.
Sometimes, a women's match is more interesting than a men's match. But it annoys me when people say we think we're better. We never said that, never," assured Billie Jean King for BBC Sport.
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