Suddenly in the national limelight following his win over Court, Riggs taunted all female tennis players, prompting King to accept a lucrative financial offer to play Riggs in a nationally televised match in prime time on ABC that the promoters dubbed the 'Battle of the Sexes'. His quick victory (6–2, 6–1) landed Riggs on the cover of both Sports Illustrated and Time. Riggs used his drop shots and lobs to keep Court off balance. Televised by CBS Sports, Riggs descended the stadium steps and presented Court with Mother's Day flowers, which she accepted while curtsying. On the day of their match on May 13, 5,000 fans came to the Mother's Day match in Ramona, California.

She was in the midst of earning her seventh year-end ranking as number one female player in the world. At the time, Court was 30 years old and had recently returned to tennis after giving birth to her first child in March 1972. Riggs first challenged Billie Jean King, but when she declined, Margaret Court stepped in. In 1973, he opined that the female game was inferior and that even at his current age of 55 he could still beat any of the top female players. After he retired from professional tennis in 1951, Riggs remained a master promoter of himself and of tennis.

Riggs had been one of the world's top tennis players in the 1940s he was ranked year-end number one three times and had won six major titles during his career, including three Wimbledon titles. These matches were won by Riggs and Connors, respectively.Īt least eight other exhibition matches have been played between notable male and female tennis players starting in 1888, though only some of them were referred to at the time as a 'battle of the sexes'. Two other matches commonly referred to as a 'battle of the sexes' include one held four months earlier in 1973 between Riggs and Margaret Court over the best of three sets, and one in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova over the best of three sets, with hybrid rules favoring the female player dubbed 'The Battle of Champions'. King's win is considered a milestone in public acceptance of women's tennis. The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide. The term is most famously used for an internationally televised match in 1973 held at the Houston Astrodome between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. In tennis, ' Battle of the Sexes' describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. Bobby Riggsīattle of the Sexes III Martina Navratilova vs. Bobby Riggsīattle of the Sexes II Billie Jean King vs.

Pam Plays Doubles by Jean MacGibbon