The New Battle of The Sexes

Over the past few days, the WTA has caught a wave of backlash online—especially after the latest “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match between Nick Kyrgios and Aryna Sabalenka—and a lot of the conversation has completely missed the point. Many fans slammed the matchup as having gimmicky rules and a resized court that didn’t make much sense and barely proved anything about the level of women’s tennis. Others criticized the spectacle itself, saying it belittled women’s sport and reduced Sabalenka’s status as world No. 1 to a sideshow, even though the event was clearly meant to be light-hearted rather than a serious competition about gender ability.

Old Nick

I didn’t think this was a good matchup because a lot of people are criticizing Nick for the tennis he's currently playing. People are saying he’s out of shape. But I tend to disagree a little bit. I still feel that Nick Kyrgios has some good tennis left in him. I don’t think that he’s anywhere near the shape that he needs to be in to match his previous results.

But can Kyrgios still win matches on the main tour? Yes, he can. He played very little tennis in 2025, yet he still beat Mackenzie McDonald in Miami. So, I think Kyrgios can win matches on the ATP tour. And I believe that if he played a full schedule, he would be a top-100 player.

Now, of course, as I said, he’s far from his best. And when you have a top 100 male player versus the best female player on the WTA tour, there’s going to be absolutely no chance for the WTA player.

There’s absolutely no secret about this. Despite the hindrances Nick faced, the outcome was inevitable. And for that reason, I don’t think this matchup was a good one. We want to see matches where the outcome is uncertain.

Better Opponents

There could have been other opponents for Sabalenka that would have made this battle of the sexes way more interesting. But a lot of people are wondering how far down in the rankings we need to go so that female players can start beating up on male players. And I don’t like reading some of the comments that I’ve been reading because the WTA is by far the best female sport on planet Earth. Nothing else comes close, and female players deserve tremendous respect, not criticism.

So, this battle of the sexes potentially backfired a little bit. I do find the battle of the sexes matches interesting because I think there’s a way to showcase the level of female players, which is close to the male level, and therefore, the matches can be exciting. But there cannot be that much of a discrepancy, or the game will, quite frankly, be very dull.

UTR

So when you look at the UTRs of the very top players on the WTA tour, they are very close to 13. So, Sabalenka is currently at 12.99, and behind her are Rybakina, Swiatek, Anisimova, and Coco Gauff. And they’re all very close to 13 UTR. If you look at the male rankings, the top 100s are usually UTR 15. It doesn’t go all the way down to 100. I think at 95 or so, there are a few guys who are very high UTR 14s. And if you look at the very top of the game, the top six players, they are UTRs 16.

So the top 100 players in the world are on average UTR 15, and the very top of the WTA are UTR 13. And when you match up a 15 against a 13, the outcome is going to be reasonably sure. The UTR 13 is not going to have many chances.

External Factors

Now, the game of tennis is very complex, and it’s not all about stats. It’s not all about UTR ratings. It goes a little bit deeper than that. So if you had a scenario where you put Sabalenka, the number one player in the world, against a guy ranked 1000, the guy ranked 1000 would still have a higher UTR than Sabalenka.

From a mental standpoint, that could've never happened on that big a scale, possibly on national TV. That player might have been a bit tight, and Sabalenka would have had a considerable advantage. Whereas if they played on a practice court where nobody was watching, Sabalenka would likely lose.

So I can’t give you a specific ranking of an ATP player who would start losing to the best player on the WTA tour, because it depends on other factors besides their UTR level. That Sabalenka might beat a lower-ranked player.

Previous Matches

Something similar happened with Andreeva a while back, when she faced an ATP player ranked 1200 or so, and Andreeva was at the time 50-something in the world. She did lose 7-5, 6-2, and this match took place in a stadium. So generally speaking, it’s going to be very difficult for any woman, including the very top of the game, to beat a male player. There is a discrepancy in skill. The most significant advantages for men are the serve, the heaviness of the groundstrokes, and the movement. And those critical components.

What they tried to do many times in the battle of the sexes was to use older, retired players and pit them against a top WTA player. For example, Yannick Noah played Justine Henin when he was in his 40s, and Henin was at the top of the game. And Noah was doing a lot of trick shots in that match. 7-6 in the third. So that can work too.

D1 Tennis

But something exciting would be a college player facing off against a top WTA player. And you can’t just say Division 1 college player because there are so many different levels within Division 1 college tennis. There are UTR 8s playing Division 1 college tennis, but it goes all the way up to UTR 14s.

The most significant number of players you will find in Division 1 are UTR 12s. So there will be a lot of UTR 13s, and some UTR 14s. Those are the players who usually have a good chance of performing well on the ATP tour, possibly rising into the top 100. So if you faced off one of these UTR 13s out of Division 1 college and put them against a top WTA player, that would be an exciting match to watch.

Final Thoughts

The WTA Tour, just like the ATP Tour, has improved significantly. There’s more depth in the game now. And it is unbelievably difficult to make it as a WTA player. It requires the same amount of work as becoming an ATP player. So for that reason, WTA players deserve a lot of respect, and they shouldn’t be compared to male players.