India, Dec. 29 -- It was, at times, hard to fathom what this was.

An attempt at some unintentional humour: in Nick Kyrgios's introduction montage, the Australian checked into the venue seated on a camel.

An attempt to jazz up the glam: for Aryna Sabalenka's entry, the Belarusian emerged from the stands wearing a shiny, glitzy trench coat, while she danced away for the cameras during a mid-match "strategic timeout".

An attempt at a bit of unique tennis: around plenty of giggles and banter between points, there was, to be fair, some of that too.

You may call it what you want - exhibition; entertainment; spectacle; anything but tennis as the world knows it. But in what was called the "Battle of the Sexes" of the modern era, Kyrgios, a 30...