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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, [4] which King won in three sets. [2][5] The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide. [6] .
Sep 20, 2013 · Billie Jean King’s straight‑set victory over self‑proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs reverberated far beyond the world of tennis.
- Jesse Greenspan
Sep 19, 2017 · The so-called “battle of the sexes” of Sept. 20, 1973, which pitted Bobby Riggs against Billie Jean King, was over in three straight sets and just a little more than two hours.
- 3 min
- Fact: Billie Jean King Came Into Conflict with Jack Kramer
- Fact: Virginia Slims Sponsored That Women’s Tennis Tour
- Fiction: King and Riggs Were Old Friends
- Fact: King Did Initially Turn Riggs Down For The Match
- Fiction: Barnett Showed Up Right Before King’s Match to Give Her A Haircut
- Fact: Riggs Was Taking 415 Vitamins A Day Before The Match
- Fact: Larry Riggs Did Not Attend The Match
- Fact: When King Won, Riggs said, “I Really Underestimated you.”
- Fiction: King Cried Alone in The Locker Room After Winning
Once a tennis champ himself, Kramer (Bill Pullman) was running the Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament in 1970. That tournament offered women just 15% of the prize money that it awarded the men, despite that the women’s final sold as many tickets as the men’s final did. King challenged Kramer about the pay gap, and when he would not agree to up the...
In retrospect, the cigarette company was probably not the best sponsor of an athletic tournament. But it was the only advertising money they could get. Sarah Silverman’s character, Gladys Heldman, did indeed arrange the Virginia Slims tour. She asked the players to sign symbolic $1 contracts before they had enough money to pay the players and then ...
In the movie, the two tennis players seem to know each other well — not only does Riggs call King in the middle of the night to challenge her to a match, but King dismisses the call as typical Riggs behavior. In reality, King saysshe barely knew the former champion, who was 25 years her senior. However, after the Battle of the Sexes the two became ...
And he did then ask Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) to play him instead. Riggs defeated Court in the “Mother’s Day Massacre,” which changed King’s mind about playing Riggs. King and Court really were rivals, their careers intertwined. King’s first major singles success came in 1972 when she upset the top-seeded Court in the second round of Wimbled...
The scene in which Barnett runs out of her salon to find King and give her a confidence boost (and a haircut) right before her face-off with Riggs is Hollywood fabrication. The haircut did happen but in Los Angeles before King left for the match in Houston.
Before the match with Margaret Court, the 55-year-old Riggs enlisted the help of Hollywood nutrition guru Rheo Blair. He began a protein and dairy-focused diet and popped hundreds of vitamins every day.
Selena Roberts writes in A Necessary Spectacle that Bobby Riggs’ son foresaw his father’s downfall when Bobby didn’t take his training seriously. In protest, he refused to attend the King-Riggs match.
King has shared the mid-court conversation, included in the movie, with reporters. Riggs reportedly later saidafter the match, “This is the worst thing in the world I’ve ever done.” ESPN once reported that the entire match was rigged by the mob. King denies that this was true, and the directors saythat those they spoke to close to Bobby thought the...
King says didn’t get a moment to herself after the historic match. “They kept me so busy after that, but that’s how I was feeling, such relief,” King told USA Today.
Sep 22, 2017 · In 1973, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs went head to head in a televised tennis match. The champion won $100,000, but both competitors had ulterior motives far larger than a cash prize.
- Katherine Schaffstall
Sep 20, 2023 · Riggs was the hustler, eager to occupy the limelight. Yet for all that divided King and Riggs that evening, the two occupied significant common ground, their paths profoundly crystallized at the...
Sep 19, 2017 · Fifty years ago, Billie Jean King faced Bobby Riggs in a tennis match that held importance for King and generations of female athletes that followed.
