"I actually think it's quite insulting": Former Lleyton Hewitt coach finds Sabalenka-Kyrgios 'lose lose' for women's tennis

The former coach of Lleyton Hewitt when he reached the 2005 Australian Open final, Roger Rasheed who has also coached Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Grigor Dimitrov to great success called the upcoming Battle of the Sexes between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios 'insulting'.

Scheduled for December 28th in Dubai, Sabalenka in particular has garnered a lot of criticism for playing in the event. The main claim is that the World No.1 is exposing women's tennis if she loses badly to Kyrgios. Garbine Muguruza just this past day said to Spanish media that even as World No.1, she couldn't beat a male junior so doesn't get it either.

Something like this could be used negatively against women's tennis, a sport that already garners comparisons with men's in regards to whether sponsorship or increased prize money is valid. Take even Roland Garros who heavily discern from putting on women's matches on night sessions and it sees a big argument engulf.

One of the talking points too comes from the whole Battle of the Sexes original run through and Billie Jean King has said herself it's not the same. At the time King was battling for social change and getting women on a more even footing. Something she succeeded in.

“The only similarity is that one is a boy and one is a girl. That’s it,” said King to the BBC. Everything else, no. Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not.

“I hope it’s a great match — I want Sabalenka, obviously, to win — but it’s just not the same. Mine was really political. It was rough, culturally, what was coming in with it. I knew I had to beat him for societal change. I had a lot of reasons to win.”

Rasheed mentioned King v Riggs and himself said that it was about something much more than tennis and that hosting a match like this has made a mockery of women's tennis and that it is not a win-win that she thinks it is for the sport.

“I’m not a fan of it, to be honest,” Rasheed told ABC Sport.

“I’m pretty disappointed it’s on. I think Nick’s management has put this show on. The court’s nine per cent smaller on one side because apparently data shows that the women’s side of the game, their movement is by less than nine per cent.

“The Billie Jean King and Riggs event was about something else … I’m not a fan of it, to be honest. I think it’s a lose-lose for the women’s side … I actually think it’s quite insulting, to be perfectly honest. I don’t see where there’s one minute, one second of win for the number one player in the world. If you are looking after Sabalenka commercially, is this a place where you want to be?”

But it has been an interesting week anyway for this contest with Sabalenka and Kyrgios talking on Piers Morgan Uncensored about trans inclusion and other debates which widely riled up the tennis world outside of promoting such a match.

This has put eyes onto the match but has also unearthed that for many it is negative that it's taking place in the first place.

"I am not putting myself at any risk. We're there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins. It's so obvious that the man is biologically stronger than the woman, but it's not about that. This event is only going to help ‌bring women's tennis to a higher level," said Sabalenka earlier this week. The match being just two weeks away will shut the debate down but also likely will evoke a lot more chatter about why it happened it the first place. An intriguing propostion.