For the record, King won the match decisively, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
When asked about her thoughts on the sequel, King was blunt: “The only similarity is that one is a boy, and one is a girl. That’s it. Everything else, no. Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not.”
Billie Jean King (right) with Evonne Goolagong Cawley at the 2023 Australian Open.Credit: Getty Images
King is right. This remake has nothing to do with social change and everything to do with crass commercialism.
Over the past decade in particular, there’s been a seismic shift for women in sport globally. One of the joys of documenting this has been the move away from comparing women’s and men’s sport. There’s now broad recognition that the two are different and should be celebrated equally in their own right.
No longer is the word “equality” an afterthought – it is central to the whole discussion. Girls and women are crashing through the grass ceiling, creating pathways and opportunities across a range of sports. Female sporting role models are more visible; these days, they’re celebrated for their actual sporting prowess, not for lying in a bathtub full of golf balls.
When it all comes together, and sport invests in women, you get results like 86,174 at the MCG for the Women’s T20 World Cup Final between Australia and India on International Women’s Day, 2020.
Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024.Credit: Getty Images
We can, at last, see real and meaningful progress.
Considering these advances, it feels grossly out of step to promote a tennis match that insults Sabalenka, who has won four grand slam singles titles and is the women’s world No.1. Pitting her against a man suggests that it’s all well and good being a women’s champion, but let’s measure you against a real yardstick.
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Fitting for the circus, but not modern sport.
Perhaps most disturbingly, the battle of the sexes provides a sugar hit for misogynists who use social media as a vehicle to denigrate, threaten and abuse women in sport.
As a journalist who expresses opinions about sport, I know from personal experience that there’s something darkly savage about the online abuse that women in sport cop. It’s truly disgusting – and emanates from a belief that women don’t belong here. This match is exactly the sort of story that feeds the beast.
Sabalenka says the match will help take women’s tennis to a higher level, but I can’t see how. If she loses, the women’s game will be ridiculed, and misogynists will melt keyboards. If she wins, the narrative will be that she beat an injured has-been who’s barely picked up a racquet in two years.
I’m not suggesting that the sporting landscape is entirely fair in 2025. There are still barriers – structural and attitudinal – that stop women and girls from thriving in sport. But stunts that invite ridicule and abuse are not the answer.
Respect. Invest. Promote.
Sabalenka has won four grand slam titles – two at the Australian Open and two at the US Open.Credit: Getty Images
Some things from the 1970s are worth hanging onto, but the battle of the sexes isn’t one of them.
Aside from bank accounts, there are no real winners here.
Angela Pippos is a journalist, writer, filmmaker and former political adviser.
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