Cynics have wondered exactly what the point of the event is.
Sabalenka and Kyrgios insist it is to attract a different audience to the sport, with an emphasis on fun, entertainment and celebrity culture.
“There are question marks – and that scares people,” Kyrgios said.
“For us, it is exciting and gives us that thrill. I think events like this need to happen more in the tennis world.”
The event, being held at the 17,000-seater Coca-Cola Arena, is on track to be sold out.
Tickets range from about £100 in the upper tier stands to upwards of £600 on courtside benches.
“Sport and entertainment is the same thing – people come to watch sport for the unknown, that’s why it is not played on paper,” Kyrgios said.
“Whether it’s good or bad, they want to remember something they are going to see in everyday life.”
Billie Jean King, who beat Bobby Riggs in the second Battle of the Sexes match in 1973, hopes it will be a “great” match but says it is “not the same” as her era-defining event.
King’s victory over former Wimbledon champion Riggs – a 55-year-old self-proclaimed chauvinist – was a landmark moment in the fight for gender equality and laid the path for equal pay at the top of the game.
“Ours was about social change; culturally, where we were in 1973. This one is not,” King told BBC Sport.
A HUGE airport that is set to become a central hub in Poland in the next six years has been renamed.
Work is still yet to begin on the major airport that was originally called Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, or CPK.
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Poland’s huge airport hub set to open in 2032 has been renamedCredit: CPKThe airport once fully operational could see as many as 60million people each yearCredit: CPK/Foster + Partners
Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the previous name for the country’s upcoming airport, Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, will no longer be used.
He said: “We won’t be using a name that our predecessors discredited,” adding that the planned new airport is intended to serve as “the largest hub in this part of Europe.”
Instead, the airport will be referred to and renamed as Port Polska.
Mr Tusk added: “Everyone who lands there, everyone who uses this airport, everyone who shops there should know: yes—this is the heart of Europe, yes—this is Port Polska.”
The Polish government estimates put the total cost of the Port Polska project, including the airport and associated rail links, at around PLN 131 billion (£27billion).
The enormous hub will be built in Baranów which is about 25 miles from Warsaw where the current biggest airport in the country is; Warsaw Chopin Airport.
The 450,000sqm airport will have just two runways at first – a third will open by 2045, with plans for long-haul flights.
Inside, the passenger terminal will operate across three levels. On level two will be ticket and baggage check-in, security control, arrivals and departures for the Schengen zone.
Inside, the passenger terminal will be spread across three levelsCredit: CPK/Foster + Partners
Level one will be home to most of the arrivals and departures for the Non-Schengen zone, transfer centres, and passport control.
Level zero will have coach gates for both Schengen and non-Schengen zones, baggage reclaim and an arrivals hall.
It expects to welcome around 34million passengers in its first year, but will grow to as many as 60million.
Building work is set to startnextyear, and the airport has been designed by Foster + Partners – behindLondon‘s the Gherkin and the BatterseaRoof Gardens.
The new airport will be three times bigger than the one currently in WarsawCredit: CPK/Foster+Partners
The huge airport will have other transport links too like an underground train network which will connect it to Warsaw and Lodz.
Holidaymakers in Warsaw will be able to get to the airport in just 20 minutes by train – the airport will also open a bus station for travellers.
Once open, Port Polska will take on some of the world’s biggest transport hubs like London Heathrow which welcomed a record 83.9 million passengers in 2024.
The 22sqm airport will feature six runways – up from two – parallel to each other and will be built around the existing King Khalid International Airport.
It will approximately be the same size as Manhattan in New York – or twice the size of the city of Bath, in the UK.
And now the airport has moved into its construction phase. The airport will be designed by Foster + Partners, a UK firm which is behind London‘s famous Gherkin.
Inside, travellers will be able to explore 4.6sqm of shops. A lot of features in the airport are set to include high tech, such as climate-controlled lighted.
Travellers will have plenty of seating, indoor and outdoor spaces with greenery and vast glass windows, ideal for a bit of plane spotting.
Foster + Partner’s is also developing the Wadi Loop, which will connect the airport to other developments allowing travellers to access different sites more easily.
It will eventually accommodate up to 120million passengers each year, which is then expected to rise to 185million by 2050.
And the number of aircraft takeoffs will rise from 211,000 per year to over one million.
In total, the project is estimated to cost around $30billion (£22.5billion).
