Robert Larimore Riggs was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 or the World co-No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1939, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December 26, 1941. best known for the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes,” a match in which he was defeated by Billie Jean King.
During the “battle of the sexes” he challenged a number of leading female players to a match. Margaret Court accepted his offer and he won.
He then focused on King, whom he described as the “women’s libber leader.” She agreed to play him, and the two faced off on September 20, 1973. The highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes” began as a spectacle. Playing before a record crowd of 30,472 spectators and a worldwide television audience of more than 90 million, King won all three sets—6–4, 6–3, 6–3—and in the process helped to transform the women’s game into a major sport.
2 comments:
Nice supporting details and overall great summary of this event.
The "Battle of the Sexes" was a very powerful event in the women's liberation movement. Although it may have not led to any legislation, it transformed the women's sport, as you said, and showed people that women could compete with men in sports and other fields. King continued to push for rights of women's players after this match, and is definitely an inspiration for feminists both then and now.
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