Battle of the sexes tennis match today

[Hermyknee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/cz9419p8yvvo

Court modified. Each player will only receive one serve in an attempt to restrict Kyrgios' power and speed advantage. He thinks that is the biggest leveller. Sabalenka stating that "It's so obvious that the man is biologically stronger than the woman, but it's not about that.”

Not a big tennis fan but may watch.

There was an interesting guardian article critiquing this. Kyrios is just in it to try and boost his failing career, no serious male player would do this.

Thanks for the post about the Guardian article. It says ‘A top female player cannot be competitive with a top male player and the audience will not believe any scenario where they are.’

The cognitive dissonance is strong in The Graun 🙄 Gone to shit under Viner.

The article always stated that there are no transwomen playing tennis at the competitive levels in tennis so it's a non issue. Because who cares about women playing at grassroots level.

Yeah that Guardian writer so nearly gets it and then … doesn’t.

Why would having only one serve restrict his power enough to level the playing field? Surely he could just bash his serve across and ace her? How many men’s first serves go out compared to women’s first serves?

Now I’ve read a bit about it I see that changing the size of her half of the court is definitely going to disadvantage him as he’ll be used to placing his serves just inside a significantly larger space. So with only one serve he can’t risk misplacing the shot.

Or women playing other sports…..

I think they assume that men playacting women would extend that playacting to feign being less able at sports as well.

It'a actually a tell that on some level at least they realise the whole "woman" identity of a trans woman is not a natural expression of self at all, but a deliberate and constructed performance by a man that he is in conscious control of.

They both have the same agent, and the agent set this match up.

Want to know what it's like when men play against women in tennis? Watch the mixed doubles.

I suspect that the argument is that knowledge there is no second serve will cause him to sacrifice power in the cause of greater accuracy first time off.

Yes I always imagine the first serve has more power and less accuracy to try and blast it past the opponent (knowing you have a reserve) but I don’t know much about tennis. I would have thought the smaller court would make it difficult for the female player as she may lunge for balls that are going out but she thinks are in.

It is not really a battle of the sexes just a match between two people who are different sexes.

The original BJK versus Sexist Pillock whose name I forget was only really relevant as Sexist Pillock was a sexist pillock and BJK made a fool of him.

According to the stats on the BBC article, Kyrgios has better first serve accuracy than Sabalenka (71% vs 62%). Also, the way he plays, his second serve is often more like a first serve, so the single serve is unlikely to have the effect you suggest. The only thing that might affect his serve is the smaller court to hit into.

It was the 1998 Australian Open and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, had seen some of the male players practising. On the basis of what they saw, they were convinced that they could beat a man ranked around 200 in the world and wanted to set up a game. At the time I was ranked 203 so the men's tour manager mentioned the possibility of a challenge to me, thinking that I was the perfect candidate. I didn't take much persuading, it seemed like a fun thing to do

https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,,543962,00.html

According to the stats on the BBC article, Kyrgios has better first serve accuracy than Sabalenka (71% vs 62%). Also, the way he plays, his second serve is often more like a first serve, so the single serve is unlikely to have the effect you suggest. The only thing that might affect his serve is the smaller court to hit into.

Does it give first vs second serve accuracies and speeds? 'More like' - but still likely that both players will have a second serve that is slower and more accurate than their first serve. It will give Sabalenka more chance to get keep the ball in play.

If you've watched mixed doubles this will be clear. When the M player serves to the F opponent, it's least likely to get returned of all the combinations - but if he faults the first attempt, it's more likely she'll get the second serve back.

Even if his second serve was identical to his first, I think many male players would be happy to get 30% of points off Kyrgios on his serve. In reality, he will have and use a slower, safer second serve, and more points will get to the rally stage than would have done without the adjustment. Which is what the adjustment is trying to achieve.

He'll get her serves back much of the time anyway first or second serve, but at least then they're in a rally. I think they think that rallies depend more on skill than raw strength, at least compared to serves. And that the women's game being also more centred on rallies compared to the men's she may have more skill than him. Combined with the different court sizes to counter speed advantage in rallies. If they're both having to run from one corner of the court to the other, she's running less far.

I don't see they've done anything to mitigate his power advantage in rallies though. And of course she'll also be using her safer slower second serve so those will come powering back at her.

It's meant to be a bit of fun, just a shame it's NK rather than some nice, popular ex-player taking on Sabalenka. He's going to win but she will get some games, I reckon. If they mess around and joke around it could be quite entertaining. I like Sabalenka, so I will be watching.
The serves restriction makes no sense - it only works if she retains 2 to his 1. Don't know what the thinking was there.

I enjoy watching mixed doubles but this is different, obviously. And also male big hitters don't usually play mixed doubles, not at this stage of their career anyway.

The serves restriction makes no sense - it only works if she retains 2 to his 1. Don't know what the thinking was there.

Yes I agree 2:1 would have been fairer. I still think 1 each will help, because it gets more points to a rally where she will at least stand a chance of bringing her skill into play. He's losing aces, she's losing aces, but she would have been getting far fewer aces in the first place so it is a levelling measure.

The original BJK versus Sexist Pillock whose name I forget was only really relevant as Sexist Pillock was a sexist pillock and BJK made a fool of him.

That's a brilliant sentence, zanahoria, it sums up all we really need to know about the event. I'd love to read more of your reportage😂

The BBC build up is on now. I think there’s been some arguments between the commentators behind the scenes.

True, Hermyknee

Annabel Croft sums up how I see it. It's annoying that some are saying that the reputation of women's tennis is on the line. ITS NOT. It's just a gimmick.

Yes it’s very interesting that she says the women stars train with men all the time.

This whole match annoys me

As a (recreational) Competitive tennis player, the difference in speed and strength between men and women in tennis is significant!

I have played singles against men, and it is very disheartening how good you have to be as a woman to beat a mediocre man 😄

Well that makes sense as it would be easier to find a male opponent who could give them a good game in training.

Both sisters are great tennis players and hit the ball extremely well. However, if you've been playing on the men's tour there are certain shots you can play that are going to put them in difficulty. Try and put a lot spin on the ball - I was hitting the ball with a degree of spin they don't face week-in, week-out. Another key is to chase down every shot. In our match, they were putting shots into the corners that on the women's tour would be winners but I was able to return them

The man who beat the Williams sisters explains it well. He knew he had advantages that were impossible to counter so he used them.