Battle of the Sexes.

Bobby Riggs had successfully challenged and defeated Margaret Court, 6-2, 6-1, on Mother’s Day, 1973, in a highly publicized tennis match. Buoyed by momentum from that victory and seeking an even bigger venue for his promotional interests, the fifty-five-year-old Riggs set his sights on the top female player of the day. Billie Jean King, twenty-nine years old, was at the peak of her game and had just captured all three titles for which she was eligible at Wimbledon earlier that summer. Riggs had recorded the same feat at Wimbledon thirty-four years earlier. He challenged King to a match to be billed as the Battle of the Sexes.