It was the only tennis match to begin with one of the competitors being handed a piglet – but it was no ordinary match.
On September 20, 1973, an estimated 90 million people worldwide watched Billie Jean King defeat self-proclaimed chauvinist Bobby Riggs in a best-of-five match at the Houston Astrodome.
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There was pageantry, pomp and a check for $100,000 (£74,765) for the winner. It was the second installment of Battle of the Sexes – but the name is more than just a marketing slogan.
King’s victory over Riggs was part of the women’s rights movement. This had the potential to influence politics and the future of women’s tennis.
When Aryna Sabalenka faces Nick Kyrgios on Sunday, it will be a Battle of the Sexes, but the stakes won’t be as high as those she faced King 52 years ago.
“The only similarity is that one is a boy and the other is a girl. That’s it,” King told BBC Sport when asked about the Sabalenka-Kyrgios match.
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“Everything else, no. Our goal was social change; cultural, where we were in 1973. Mine was really political.
“I knew I had to beat him for societal change. I had a lot of reasons to win.”
In 1973, King was 29, a 10-time Grand Slam singles champion and at the height of her powers. Riggs was 55 and had won the men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon in 1939 before his career was cut short by World War II.
“He had been following me for two years, asking me to play. I kept saying ‘Bobby, I’m not going to play you,'” King told the BBC World Service’s Sporting Witness program in 2017.
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“I only said yes because Margaret lost.”
Australian Margaret Court, a 24-time major singles champion and then world number one, was one of King’s fiercest rivals. She stepped in to play Riggs in the first Battle of the Sexes in May 1973.
It ended up being dubbed the “Mother’s Day Massacre” after Riggs comprehensively beat the 30-year-old 6-2 6-1.
King was very aware of what winning – or losing – her match could mean.
Tennis become a professional in 1968. But when King won the first Wimbledon singles title of the Open era, she claimed £750 in prize money. Rod Laver, the men’s champion, won £2,000.
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King and eight other women, now known as the “Original Nine,” demanded better.
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They formed their own women’s circuit, signing a symbolic one-dollar contract to compete in a tournament in Texas.
They were later banned from participating in Grand Slam tournaments, but their courage paid off. In 1973, they founded the Women’s Tennis Associationa unified body to promote and govern women’s football.
American showman Riggs had spent much of 1973 giving incendiary interviews, claiming that women “play 25% as well as men, so they should get 25% of the money men get” and “if I’m going to be a chauvinistic pig, I want to be number one pig”.
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Riggs knew what he was doing in challenging King, a player whose public persona was linked to the ever-growing women’s rights movement. But King knew how symbolic a victory over Riggs would be.
“It stood for so many things: equality, freedom, equal pay for equal work. I knew I had to win,” King said.
“But I like pressure. I’m made for this kind of match.”
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A student of the game, King listed Riggs as one of her heroes and she prepared herself physically and mentally for the match.
She watched a replay of her match against Court. At first, Riggs presented Court with a bouquet of roses. The court curtsied in response – a gesture that King felt played “right into his hands.”
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“If it were me, I would have grabbed him and kissed him. If he gets too dirty, I can get hard too,” King said. told Time magazine in 1973.
Riggs’ preparation wasn’t as meticulous. He had gone to Wimbledon earlier that year to see King play and was not fazed.
“Billie Jean King is one of the greatest tennis stars of all time, but she has no chance against me,” he told Time.
“I’m going to bother her a little – she won’t admit it but I can already see her falling apart at the seams…”
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King got into the mood, mocking the way Riggs waddled around the field like a duck. But she knew where to draw the line.
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Riggs showed up to a workout wearing a shirt with two circles cut out where his nipples used to be. He joked that King would look better than him in it.
The next day, during their last press conference, a king who spoke directly to him called him a bad guy. Riggs asked him to take it back. King looked him straight in the eye and said, “Creep stands.”
She said later on the WTA website: “I knew that some people actually believed some of the sexist things he was saying, and I wanted to be firm and clear: that was not OK.”
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When game day arrived, the Astrodome was packed. King’s competitors on the Virginia Slims circuit were in attendance. Those in the $100 premium seats held up signs reading “Whiskey, Women and Riggs” and “Who Needs Women?” “.
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King knew she had a role to play in the pregame theater. She first entered the arena on a feather-adorned stretcher, carried by four shirtless men dressed as Egyptian slaves.
“The promoter said ‘oh, you’re a feminist, you probably won’t get on that Egyptian litter,'” King said. told Sporting Witness.
“I said ‘are you kidding me? What does being a feminist have to do with that? We like fun. Pick me up and let’s go!’
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Riggs followed a rickshaw pulled by women wearing “Sugar Daddy” t-shirts – the name of a candy company.
The two men exchanged gifts. Riggs gave King a giant lollipop with Sugar Daddy written on it. King handed over a piglet – a reference to Riggs’ reputation as a “chauvinistic pig”.
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“I called him Robert Larimore Riggs, which is his real name,” King said.
“I said (to the promoter), you have to make me a promise, you can’t kill the piglet – you can’t use it for bacon or pork, you have to leave it on a farm, and they did.”
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Unlike the Sabalenka-Kyrgios match, no adjustments were made. King and Riggs would play five sets – something only men do in major tournaments – on a standard court.
In such a noisy environment, the first set would be crucial. No matter how innately talented Riggs was, he was still a 55-year-old man who hadn’t played competitively in years.
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But it was King who collapsed early.
“I felt like the first set was going to be major, psychologically, for him, so I had to win it. I was playing horrible, making mistakes, and basically giving it to him,” King said.
“Then I said ‘this is my moment of truth, this could be the difference between winning or losing if you don’t win this set’.”
From 3-2 down, King fought back. At 5-4, and with King having put the point on Riggs’ service, the American, who said the day before that he had “no nerves”, committed a double fault. The whole thing went to King.
“It was major. Psychologically for Bobby, it really hurt him. When we changed ends, I could tell he couldn’t believe he lost the first set,” King said.
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A naturally aggressive player, King changed tactics against Riggs. She dictated play from the baseline, forcing Riggs to run from corner to corner and tiring him out. One report states that out of the 109 points she earned, 70 of them were outright winners.
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King, who led 6-3 6-4, missed his first two match points. But once again, Riggs, now serving to stay in the match, faltered. A double fault to tie the score at 5-3 gave King a third match point – and Riggs sent a volley into the net to confirm his victory.
King raised his arms in the air in celebration, before hugging Riggs at the net. As she lifted the trophy, King knew she had stood up for women’s sports and won.
“Winning is always a relief. I was so happy it was over,” King said.
“This tennis court is my stage, and you share it with everyone and you want to give it the best show, but there was a lot to play.
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“I’ve been living this moment for a long time.”
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Immediately afterward, Riggs said he had underestimated King. “Every time I thought I had won the point in our exchanges, she kept it,” he said.
Later, there were allegations that Riggs had deliberately threw the match to pay off his gambling debts to the mafia.
Whatever the circumstances, King’s victory remained etched in the public mind. Not a day goes by without someone mentioning the Battle of the Sexes.
“When I met President Obama in the Oval Office for the first time, he said to me, ‘I watched that game when I was 12. I have two daughters now and it has made a difference in how I raise them,'” King said.
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“The women who saw it, it empowered them and gave them self-confidence.
“And men come up to me and they’re the ones who are very emotional – sometimes they have tears in their eyes.”
King and Riggs, who died in October 1995, remained in touch afterward and he remained a sporting hero to her.
“We stayed in touch and the night before he died I had a big talk with him,” King said.
“He finally understood that it was about history. I told him it was about history, and he said no, it was about money.
“He told me he loved me and the next day he died.”
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King finished his career with 39 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
But she is just as remembered for her fight for equality in sports, and beating Riggs was a crucial part of that.
