Tennis · 1973 · Houston, USA
The Battle of the Sexes
In a match broadcast to tens of millions and staged as pure spectacle, Billie Jean King beats self-styled hustler and former champion Bobby Riggs in straight sets.
King def. Riggs, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3
Result
~30,472
Attendance
~50 million
US TV audience
Bobby Riggs, a former world number one by then in his fifties, had already beaten top-ranked Margaret Court earlier in 1973 and spent months publicly baiting women's tennis, arguing the men's game was inherently superior. Billie Jean King, a leading advocate for equal pay in tennis, agreed to play him in a nationally televised exhibition at the Houston Astrodome.
King was carried into the arena on an Egyptian-style litter and presented Riggs with a live piglet before the match, playing along with the show while treating the tennis itself with total seriousness. She won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, in front of a crowd of over 30,000, still a record attendance for a tennis match, and a US television audience estimated at more than 50 million.
The result did not settle the question Riggs had raised so much as make it look absurd, and King's win became a touchstone moment for the broader fight for equal treatment in women's sport that she had already been leading through the formation of the WTA and the fight for equal Grand Slam prize money.
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