Former world number one and Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov commented on the exhibition match 'Battle of the Sexes' between Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Australian Nick Kyrgios.
The match ended with a victory for the Australian with a score of 6-3, 6-3.
As Kafelnikov noted in the First & Red podcast, such matches provoke discussions that do not contribute to the popularization of tennis. Many have already begun to draw parallels between the status of players and raise the issue of equal prize money at Grand Slam tournaments.
"People write: how can you demand equal prize money if the world’s number one female player cannot compete with a player who has long been inactive in the men's tour? Do you understand where this is leading?
These battles of the sexes are a thing of the past. There is no need to continue discussions about a woman's chances of beating a man; this topic should become history. A woman, by definition, has no chance even against a male tour player ranked 1000 or 2000," Kafelnikov added.
