Roger Rasheed ripped the Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios match as "quite insulting," while also questioning the Belarusian tennis star's choice because she put women's tennis in "a lose-lose situation."
Ahead of the Battle of the Sexes scheduled for December 28th in Dubai, Sabalenka has been catching a lot of criticism for agreeing to participate in a match against a male player. The main claim is that the world No. 1 is exposing women's tennis to the risk of losing badly to Kyrgios - something that could allow women's tennis critics to use it to prove their point that there was a clear difference between men's and women's tennis.
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Rasheed, who coached Lleyton Hewitt when the former world No. 1 won the 2005 Australian Open, had a strong take on the Sabalenka and Kyrgios clash, pretty much saying that he didn't see any positives about it.
Rashed: It's a lose-lose for women's tennis... It's quite insulting
"I'm not a fan of it, to be honest. I think it's a lose-lose for the women's side I actually think it's quite insulting, to be perfectly honest. I don't see where there's one minute, one second of win for the number one player in the world. If you are looking after Sabalenka commercially, is this a place where you want to be?" Rasheed told ABC Sport.
Earlier this week, Sabalenka was directly asked about the criticism surrounding her match against Kyrgios. The reigning US Open champion downplayed it by saying that the pressure was on the Australian's side and that he was "in a lose-lose situation."
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"I am not putting myself at any risk. We're there to have fun and bring great tennis. Whoever wins, wins. It's so obvious that the man is biologically stronger than the woman, but it's not about that. This event is only going to help bring women's tennis to a higher level," the top-ranked WTA player said.
