In tennis, "Battle of the Sexes" describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. 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, which King won in three sets. The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide. King's win is considered a milestone in public acceptance of women's tennis.
Two other matches commonly referred to as a "battle of the sexes" include one held four months earlier in 1973 between Riggs and Margaret Court over the best of three sets, and one in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova over the best of three sets, with hybrid rules favoring the female player dubbed "The Battle of Champions". These matches were won by Riggs and Connors, respectively.
At least eight other exhibition matches have been played between notable male and female tennis players starting in 1888, though only some of them were referred to at the time as a "battle of the sexes".
Riggs had been one of the world's top male tennis players in the 1940s; he was ranked year-end number one three times and had won six major titles during his career, including three Wimbledon titles. After he retired from professional tennis in 1951, Riggs remained a master promoter of himself and of tennis. In 1973, he opined that the female game was inferior and that even at his current age of 55 he could still beat any of the top female players.
Riggs first challenged Billie Jean King, but when she declined, Margaret Court stepped in, accepting the guarantee of $20,000 for the match, more than she had earned for winning both the 1973 Australian and French Open women's singles titles. At the time, Court was 30 years old and had recently returned to tennis after giving birth to her first child in March 1972. She was in the midst of earning her seventh year-end ranking as number one female player in the world. On the day of their match on May 13, 5,000 fans came to the Mother's Day match in Ramona, California. Televised by CBS Sports, Riggs descended the stadium steps and presented Court with Mother's Day flowers, which she accepted while curtsying. Riggs used his drop shots and lobs to keep Court off balance. His quick victory (6–2, 6–1) landed Riggs on the cover of both Sports Illustrated and Time. This match would thus be dubbed the "Mother's Day Massacre" due to the drubbing.
Suddenly in the national limelight following his win over Court, Riggs taunted all female tennis players, prompting King to accept a lucrative financial offer to play Riggs in a nationally televised match in prime time on ABC that the promoters dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes". The match, which had a winner-takes-all prize of $100,000 (about $725,000 in 2024), was held in Texas at the Houston Astrodome on Thursday, September 20, 1973.
Then 29-year-old King had earned her fifth year-end ranking as World No. 1 female player the previous year, and would finish second to Court in 1973.
King entered the court in the style of Cleopatra, on a feather-adorned litter carried by four bare-chested muscle men dressed in the style of ancient slaves. Riggs followed in a rickshaw drawn by a bevy of models. Riggs presented King with a giant Sugar Daddy lollipop, and she responded by giving him a squealing piglet, symbolic of male chauvinism. Riggs was given $50,000 (about $363,000 currently) to wear a yellow Sugar Daddy jacket during the match, which he took off after three games. Riggs also placed many bets on and invested money in the match.
King, who also competed in the Virginia Slims of Houston tournament during the same week, won in straight sets, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. In the first set, she fell behind 3–2 when Riggs broke her serve. In a 2015 interview, she said that most people do not remember that she was initially behind in the first set, and it looked bad for her in the early going. At this point, King realized that she "had to win" given the importance of the match, and broke right back and again in the tenth game to close out the set. She had learned from Court's loss and was ready for Riggs's game. Rather than playing her own usual aggressive game, King mostly stayed at the baseline, at least at first, easily handling Riggs's lobs and soft shots, making him cover the entire court as she ran him from side to side and beat him at his own defensive style of play. After quickly failing from the baseline, where he had intended to play, Riggs dropped his comedic affect and showed a more serious demeanor, as he was forced to change to a serve-and-volley game, but he was no match for King.
Some male critics were less impressed by King's victory, pointing to the fact that she was 26 years younger. Jack Kramer, who was against equal pay for women and offered a tournament in which the female winner got $1,500 while the male winner got $12,000, was one example. According to him, "I don't think Billie Jean played all that well. She hit a lot of short balls which Bobby could have taken advantage of had he been in shape. I would never take anything away from Billie Jean—because she was smart enough to prepare herself properly—but it might have been different if Riggs hadn't kept running around. It was more than one woman who took care of Bobby Riggs in Houston."
Another observer was impressed by King's brilliant play and smart tactics: "She both first-served aggressively and attacked Riggs' own softball deliveries with authority. She rushed to the net and commanded the territory by whipping stunning volleys off her backhand and by taking Riggs' infamous moon-shot lobs out of the Dome lights and rifling overheads right back past him. She varied pace on ground strokes, kept Riggs moving from corner to corner and played consistently to his weak backhand. She concentrated on hitting behind her opponent, wrong-footing him time and time again, then surprising him with some of his own beloved spin garbage. Everything worked...it was a brilliant rising to an occasion; a clutch performance under the most trying of circumstances. Seldom has there been a more classic example of a skilled athlete performing at peak efficiency in the most important moment of her life." Feminist media critic Susan Douglas later wrote "women like me screamed with delight in our living rooms, she not only vindicated female athletes and feminism but also inspired many of us to get in shape—not because it would make us beautiful but because it would make us strong and healthy".
The match had an audience of an estimated 50 million in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide. The attendance in the Houston Astrodome was 30,472; as of 2012, it remains the largest audience to see a tennis match in the United States.
The broadcasters on the ABC telecast were Howard Cosell, Rosemary Casals and Gene Scott who replaced Kramer the night prior to the event. King had issued an ultimatum that she was going to withdraw from the match unless ABC dropped Kramer as a commentator. Her intention was to deny Kramer a platform to further disparage women's tennis. She said, "He doesn't believe in women's tennis. Why should he be part of this match? He doesn't believe in half of the match. I'm not playing. Either he goes— or I go."
Casals explained why she got the ABC assignment, "I was asked to do the color because I had been so negatively outspoken about Bobby Riggs and they wanted someone to go up against Jack Kramer, who was against women's tennis. They wanted a battle on and off the court." She added, "The producer encouraged me to 'go negative' on Bobby during the match." The network's attempt at a confrontation in the broadcast never materialized because of Scott's impartiality.
There was some speculation that Riggs had deliberately lost the match. In 2013, National Public Radio aired an interview with Don Van Natta Jr., a senior writer with ESPN. According to Natta, one Hal Shaw was in the pro shop at the Palma Ceia Golf Club in Tampa when two known mobsters entered and proceeded to discuss a proposal from Riggs to win against Margaret Court, but deliberately lose to King, in settlement of a $100,000 gambling debt. The mobsters ultimately decided to accept that proposal. Shaw did not come forward about the matter at the time for fear of retribution by the mob. Per Riggs' son, Riggs did know quite a few mob leaders, and men related to the mob met with Riggs several times in the weeks leading up to the match with King. However, when these allegations were put to King, she was adamant that she knew what tanking a match looked and felt like, and Riggs did not tank the match.