A Match Made In Heaven

A movie about the showdown between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs highlights how the arch-chauvinist furthered women’s rights.

- Richard Van Rensburg

ALL IT TOOK were a few provocative sentences in a late-night phone call for the scene to be set for one of the biggest sporting spectacles of all time.

“Billie Jean, it’s Bobby Riggs. Listen, I have a great idea. You and me, Billie Jean. Three sets, five sets, your choice. Male chauvinist pig versus hairy-legged feminist. You’re still a feminist, right?”

The match this gave rise to was called the Battle of the Sexes – and it’s now the subject of a hit movie currently showing on South African screens.

The sensational match in 1973, when the women’s rights movement had started to gain momentum on the back of the sexual revolution, helped to change the face of women’s tennis forever and put paid to windbag Bobby Riggs along the way.

The lead roles in Battle of the Sexes are played by Oscar-winner Emma Stone and comedian Steve Carell.

Chances are almost everyone has heard of Billie Jean King, winner of 39 singles and doubles titles in Grand Slams and a former world No 1. She’s also the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the world governing body for women’s tennis, and an avid human rights activist.

But Bobby Riggs? Heard of him? Actually, in his heyday he was an accomplished tennis player who reached the world No 1 spot in 1939 and the late 1940s and won six Grand Slam titles.

He then slid into the seedier side of life and became a smooth-talking hustler, gambling addict and showman tennis promoter. He was also a self-professed chauvinist.

In 1973 he saw the opportunity to focus new attention on tennis – and on himself – while making a quick buck in the process.

He decided to make his “comeback” at 55, loudly proclaiming that women’s tennis was inferior to men’s and that no female player could beat him.