STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Fifty-three years ago, the air in the Houston Astrodome was thick with cigar smoke and chauvinism as Billie Jean King was carried onto the court like a modern Cleopatra. Armed with a wooden racket and an iron will, her historic
1973 “Battle of the Sexes” victory over Bobby Riggs didn’t just change tennis; it altered the cultural landscape, validating women’s sports on a global stage.
Fast forward to December 2025 in Dubai, where the tennis world watched a sequel nobody really asked for: Nick Kyrgios versus Aryna Sabalenka. While the King-Riggs showdown moved society forward, the Kyrgios-Sabalenka exhibition felt like a gimmicky spectacle. Despite playing on a court shrunk by 9% and both being restricted to a single serve, Kyrgios—plagued by injuries and ranked outside the top 600 at the time—breezed past the WTA World No. 1, 6-3, 6-3.
The match bluntly highlighted what anyone who regularly steps onto the immaculate Har-Tru clay at the Longboat Key Club or the Public Tennis Center on Bay Isles Road already knows: the biomechanical differences between men and women dictate entirely different styles of play.
But here on the Key, where the average age is a vibrant, active 68, those differences take on a fascinating new dimension. As sheer, masculine strength begins to wane, the women’s game actually becomes the ultimate blueprint for longevity and club-level dominance.
Physicality and Strength: Power’s Expiration Date
At the professional level, the biological gap is undeniable. Men possess a significant advantage in muscle mass, bone density, and fast-twitch muscle fibers.
• The Serve: ATP players routinely launch first serves over 130 mph. WTA powerhouses like Sabalenka typically max out around 115 to 120 mph.
• Topspin and RPMs: Men generate violent racket head speed, creating heavy topspin that makes the ball kick aggressively and unpredictably off the court.
• Movement: ATP pros rely on explosive lateral quickness to retrieve balls that would be clean winners on the women’s tour.
Yet, as we age, Father Time becomes the great equalizer. The explosive fast-twitch muscles that once fueled a booming flat serve inevitably quiet down. Shoulders get cranky; knees demand respect. For the men on Longboat Key, relying on brute force eventually leads to unforced errors and physical burnout. When that masculine strength diminishes, the finesse, consistency, and early ball-striking typical of the women’s tour become incredible, enduring assets.
Play Style: Heavy Artillery vs. Masterful Precision
Because of these physical realities, the tactical approaches on the pro tours diverge, a dynamic that trickles all the way down to our local courts.
• The Men’s Game: Built heavily around the “serve-plus-one.” Men use massive serves to elicit weak returns, dictating the point with heavy, spin-loaded forehands.
• The Women’s Game: Without the extreme topspin to pull the ball down into the court, WTA players hit flatter. They rely on precision, depth, and taking the ball early to rob their opponents of time. Sabalenka’s baseline dominance is a masterclass in aggressive, flat ball-striking and geometry.
If you wander down to the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center for the morning round robins, you see this play out in real-time. The guys often stubbornly try to recreate the baseline slugfests of their thirties, going for broke and ending points quickly with a forced error. Meanwhile, the women’s matches showcase beautiful point construction, strategic placement, and the kind of high-IQ tennis that wins club championships without requiring an ice bath afterward.
Endurance: Sprints, Marathons, and Florida Sun
At Grand Slams, men play best-of-five sets—brutal marathons requiring extreme pacing and the ability to weather physical valleys. Women play best-of-three, turning matches into high-intensity sprints where every single game holds immediate urgency.
At the club level, everyone plays best-of-three. But let’s be honest: surviving a 10:30 AM match in late April at the $4.5 million Tennis Gardens isn’t just about cardiovascular capacity; it’s about heat management. Here, endurance levels out entirely. Matches are decided by who has the stamina to outlast the other, and very often, the strategic pacing and efficient movement inherent to the women’s game preserve energy far better than macho baseline sprinting.
The Mental Game: A Level Playing Field
If there is one area where the gender gap completely vanishes, it is between the ears. The mental fortitude required to close out a Grand Slam or a heated 3:30 PM mixed doubles match knows no gender.
Billie Jean King needed unparalleled mental strength to carry the weight of a social movement in 1973. Sabalenka rebuilt her historically erratic serve into a weapon through sheer psychological resilience. The ability to compartmentalize errors, breathe through anxiety, and adjust tactics under stress is a purely human trait that defines the best players at both the professional and recreational levels.
Embracing the Blueprint
The recent Dubai exhibition proved that pitting an ATP player against a WTA player is a futile exercise in physics. They are two distinct, beautiful variations of the sport.
But for the smart, educated crowd gracing the courts of Longboat Key, there is a profound lesson in the women’s game. As the raw power of youth fades, adopting the WTA’s reliance on precision, court geometry, and unshakeable consistency isn’t just an option—it is the absolute secret to dominating your age group for decades to come.
