Patrick McEnroe highlights the key difference in the male and female game.

Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios’ Battle of the Sexes match at the start of the year opened up a whole new debate surrounding the men’s and women’s games.

Kyrgios, who is ranked outside the top 700 on the ATP Tour, beat Sabalenka in straight sets.

And yet it led to criticism of the women’s game, even as the WTA has arguably never been more competitive than it is right now.

Since then, Patrick McEnroe has come forward with a strong opinion about Sabalenka, highlighting what he sees as one of the biggest differences between men’s and women’s tennis.

McEnroe points out the major difference between men’s and women’s tennis

Speaking on his radio show, Holding Court, McEnroe suggested that a junior men’s player could beat Aryna Sabalenka, the top-ranked player in the world. He said:

“The short answer is that I was a decent pro as a journeyman-type player, ranked most of my career between 30, 75, 100, whatever it was.

“But if you took the top junior player in the world, the top 17 year-old and put him up against Sabalenka, they beat her 6-1, 6-1 or something. But again to me it’s irrelevant.”

Despite his views on the physical differences between men’s and women’s tennis, McEnroe added that he enjoys watching women’s matches and often prefers them over certain men’s contests.

“I don’t say that to denigrate women’s [tennis], I love women’s tennis. I’ll watch that if there’s a great matchup more than I’ll watch a men’s blowout match.

“It’s just a totally different game. And tennis, for some reason, people don’t look at it the same way because they see Madison Keys or Sabalenka hit their forehand as hard as [Jannik] Sinner. Well, they’re not hitting it with the same spin and the movement’s different.”

The structure of competition also differs significantly between tours. The WTA Tour often features more parity and unpredictability compared to the ATP Tour.

Sabalenka and Kyrgios’ Battle of the Sexes match was arguably the most controversial yet, particularly due to the Australian’s off-court life.

“I think I would definitely do it again. I love revenge and I don’t like to leave it the way it is. I think for the next match we will come up with a different format,” she explained.

“Before the match I didn’t realise I would have to adjust, and it was a bit tricky for me. I think I would keep the full court, but I would take two serves. That would even our level a lot more.

“I always say that when you are losing, you are learning, and I learned a lot about his game. I would do it again. I need revenge.”

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