VIDEO SHOWS: PRESS CONFERENCE BY ARYNA SABALENKA AND NICK KYRGIOS BEFORE THEIR 'BATTLE OF THE SEXES' MATCH RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT AND SHOTLIST SHOWS: DUBAI, UAE (DECEMBER 27, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all) 1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE ARYNA SABALENKA, SAYING: "I feel like back then it was a different story. They (women) were trying to fight for different things. We are here to bring tennis to another level, to bring attention to our sport, to help our sport grow and to have some fun. Make sure that people that are coming to watch us play have fun and enjoy great tennis. I feel like women already proved that we deserve equal (treatment) and tomorrow I'll just show that we are capable of putting a great fight against a man and have fun." 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PLAYER NICK KYRGIOS, SAYING: "I mean, yeah, I think it just… I think it's signified… Look, to answer your question, I think, yeah, in 10-15 years' time, I think, you know, it's gonna… I'm gonna look back at this moment and be, I think, proud of the way I've gone about it. And I think, you know, for the sport, I think it just means unity in the sport. And I think if you look in today's day and age with everything happening around the world, events like this are what needs to be happening more often. I think there's too much division and too much, you know, fighting and not enough coming together in enough teamwork. So regardless of the outcome, obviously, you know, I'm not saying I don't want to win, but obviously I want to win. But, you know, I think it shows that we can do some pretty incredible things together in sport. And, yeah, I'm gonna look back at this and be super… You know, it's pretty cool, like, at the end of the day. It's cool to be the one person that's gonna get… You know, be a part of this whole event. I mean, you know, we're from Canberra, Australia, and I'm now sitting here with some of my closest friends and my peers and my team, and we're in one of the most beautiful places in the world playing against Aryna. So we're very, very lucky." 3. WHITE FLASH 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE ARYNA SABALENKA, SAYING: "Well, just because the court's gonna be shorter, so I feel like he's not gonna go for bigger strokes, and I'll be always in attacking mode. And that's my power, that's my game, that's my strength, and that's how I will show my strength there. And I also got a good touch, so… And I have a bigger target to do fun things, so." 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PLAYER NICK KYRGIOS, SAYING: "Yeah, I think, look, having one serve is gonna be interesting for both of us. I think our first serves are both our strength and our weapons, so it's gonna be a bit of an adjustment out there. You know, obviously, with the crowd, it's easy to kind of speak about it now, like, oh, you're just gonna roll it in, but when there's however many people watching and the pressure starts, I think the one serve for both of us is gonna be very interesting, and we're both gonna have to adjust to that. And, yeah, I know that I'm gonna have to run." 6. WHITE FLASH 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PLAYER NICK KYRGIOS, SAYING: "My strength has always been unpredictability, you know, even on the men's tour. And, you know, guys like Novak and Federer and Nadal, like, they've struggled with not understanding how to play me at certain times, because I don't even know what I'm gonna do at certain times. So I'm gonna try and bring something that she hasn't seen before." 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE ARYNA SABALENKA, SAYING: "I've been chatting to Novak." 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PLAYER NICK KYRGIOS, SAYING: "And Novak still has a losing record against me, so I'm not sure why that is your first go-to person. But that's fine. Sorry, Novak." 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE ARYNA SABALENKA, SAYING: "But I feel like the last matches he played against you, he won, so…" 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PLAYER NICK KYRGIOS, SAYING: "Okay, anyway, but, yeah. So, of course, I'm gonna go out there and play the style of tennis that I know is effective. But, again, like, she's very good, so." 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE ARYNA SABALENKA, SAYING: "That's what I love. This event is really unpredictable, and I don't know what to expect. And that's what I love, because this is the feeling, you know, you chase when you play sport. It's this unpredictable situation. Let's say like that. And I love to challenge myself. For me, it's a huge challenge, especially playing Nick, the guy who's unpredictable and crazy. That's a great training for me. And that's a great message to the girls out there. I hope they're gonna watch, and they're gonna see how strong and tough I am to have a go to challenge myself to play against a guy." DUBAI, UAE (DECEMBER 27, 2025) (ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE) 13. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF SABALENKA AND KYRGIOS POSING WITH TROPHY 14. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF SABALENKA 15. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF SABALENKA AND KYRGIOS WITH TROPHY STORY: World number one Aryna Sabalenka and Australian Nick Kyrgios said they were excited about facing the unknown when they meet in Sunday's (December 28) "Battle of the Sexes" exhibition match that has divided opinion in the tennis world. The duo said they were not paying too much attention to the debate surrounding the contest at Dubai's Coca-Cola Arena. In the original 1973 "Battle of the Sexes", women's trailblazer Billie Jean King beat then 55-year-old former Grand Slam champion Bobby Riggs, who had maintained that women's tennis was inferior to the men's game. King recently told the BBC that while the Dubai match shared the same banner it did not have as much riding on it as her clash with Riggs. Her contest was a battle for social change in a vastly different cultural era, she said. Kyrgios said the world needed more collaborative efforts like his match against Sabalenka. While Riggs had retired from the men's tour when he faced King, Kyrgios is still active player on the ATP circuit. The former Wimbledon runner-up's career has been dogged by injuries over the last few seasons, however, and he has played only five professional singles matches in 2025. The best-of-three sets encounter will have modified rules, including one serve for each player and a slightly smaller court for Sabalenka, with a 10-point tiebreak settling the contest should it go into a decider. (Production: Abdel Hadi Ramahi, Aadi Nair)
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