One of the biggest issues the sport of tennis faces today is the lack of colourful athletes which attracts public interest for their on-the-court as well as off-the-court antics.
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Bobby Riggs
Players like McEnroe, Becker and Agassi are prime examples of the influence this type of reputation carries and what it does for the sport at a mass media level. But before this trio, the world of tennis had Bobby Riggs, a prominent tennis player of the 1940s that left an impressive legacy with six Grand Slam titles before retiring in 1951.
A Bold and Brash Gambler
Bobby was quite bold and definitely not lacking in confidence: before attending the 1939 Wimbledon Championships, his first time no less, he brashly announced publicly that he would not only win the singles tournament but the doubles and mixed-doubles as well. And the mad-hatter did just that. Betting $100 on himself, he took home winnings valued at over $2M when converted into today’s currency. The trifecta was a first in 1939 and a feat which hasn’t been repeated by a first-time participant since.
Though he was popular in his era, he aimed to stay in the headlines post-retirement as he embraced the role of a self-proclaimed hustler and male chauvinist, arranging exhibition matches fuelled by his love for gambling. He already knew back then any press is good press and that press converts to cold hard cash. One thing any degenerate gambler is always in need of is cold hard cash.
The “Mother’s Day Massacre”
In 1973, Riggs shifted his focus to women’s tennis and began openly criticising the caliber of female players. Seizing media attention, he boldly claimed that, at age 55, he could defeat any pro female. Margaret Court, then the world’s top-ranked female, took up the challenge and faced Riggs on Mother’s Day in 1973. Riggs emerged victorious, defeating Court 6-2, 6-1, skilfully keeping her off-balance with well-executed drop shots and lobs. The one-sided match went down in history as “The Mother’s Day Massacre”.
The “Battle of the Sexes”: The most watched tennis event of all time
Though he was criticised, Riggs remained undeterred and sought another female opponent, and this time, his attention turned to Billie Jean King. Initially, King had declined Riggs’ challenges because a loss would be a major setback for the gender pay equality issue she was advocating for, but after witnessing Court’s defeat, she accepted the offer to face him in a televised match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.”
The event attracted an estimated global audience of 90 million viewers, and the winner would take home $100K (almost $700K in today’s currency). To this day it still remains the most watched tennis event of all time.
In the early stages of the match, Riggs managed to break King’s serve, which spurred her determination to win and preserve the image of women’s tennis. King ultimately triumphed in straight sets, with a convincing 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory. The feat garnered significant attention not only for women’s tennis but whispers circulated far and wide that Riggs had bet against himself in order to pay off gambling debts to the mob and therefore threw the match.
We will probably never know for sure but one thing we do know, is Riggs was a master, for better or worse, of using the media to his advantage and staging the world’s biggest ever circus show in the tennis arena.
A topic for the ages
Since then the differences between male and female tennis has come up again, with the Williams sisters challenging Karsten Braasch (ranked 203 at the time) to an impromptu 1-Set “Battle of the Sexes” match at the 1998 Australian Open and Braasch beating the sisters back-to-back: wining 6-1 against Serena and 6-2 against Venus.
John McEnroe also made waves in the media after an interview he had went viral, where he states Serena Williams is the best female player of all time and the interviewer questioning why he needs to include “female” in that label and not just best of all time. We won’t re-hash the complete interview and outcome, you can surely find it online, but needless to say, the “Battle of the Sexes” seems to be a subject which will peak interests for generations to come.
