Tennis · 1973 · Houston, USA
The Battle of the Sexes
Staged as pure spectacle and broadcast to tens of millions, the match ends with Billie Jean King beating the 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 was a former world number one, by then in his fifties, who had already beaten the top-ranked Margaret Court earlier in 1973 and had spent months baiting women's tennis in public, arguing that the men's game was inherently superior. Billie Jean King, by then the leading advocate for equal pay in the sport, agreed to play him in a nationally televised exhibition at the Houston Astrodome.
King arrived carried on an Egyptian-style litter and handed Riggs a live piglet before the first serve, playing her part in the show while treating the tennis itself with complete seriousness. She won 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, in front of a crowd of over 30,000 that is still a record attendance for a tennis match, with a US television audience estimated at more than 50 million.
The win did not so much settle the question Riggs had raised as make it look absurd. King had already driven the formation of the WTA and the campaign for equal Grand Slam prize money, and the Astrodome handed that campaign a night tens of millions of people had watched for themselves.
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