Fifty years in the past, Billie Jean King fought for equality in ladies’s sports activities in entrance of a world viewers.

Through Battle of the Sexes, she additionally introduced a highlight to the newly shaped Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which was additional celebrated on the 2023 U.S. Open.

This 12 months’s U.S. Open, which topped Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic as champions, was additionally a celebration of fifty years of equal prize cash on the Grand Slam in New York. The two winners took house $3 million apiece.

“The Battle of the Sexes gave women’s tennis, and women athletes, an unprecedented global platform,” King advised the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHOF). “I’m pleased with the match’s lasting affect in establishing respect and offering alternatives for ladies in sports activities and past.”

King was honored on the Legends Ball after the U.S. Open ladies’s closing on Sept. 9 held in New York City. At the celebration, quite a few artifacts from the historic match had been displayed.

The iconic gadgets displayed year-long on the ITHOF’s museum assortment, included King’s match footwear, Riggs’ Sugar Daddy jacket, racquets and different memorabilia.

Who received out of Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs?

Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in 1973, in entrance of a crowd of over 30,000 on the Houston Astrodome.

What was the Battle of the Sexes in tennis?

King accepted a problem from Hall of Famer and former males’s world No. 1 Bobby Riggs to compete in a televised match in 1973.

Riggs, a self-proclaimed “male chauvinist,” mentioned that even at age 55, he might beat any participant on the prime of the ladies’s tennis sport.

In the match, King fought for equality in ladies’s sports activities whereas placing the newly shaped WTA on the map. It is the most-watched tennis match of all time so far.

When did Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs?

The match was held on Sept. 20, 1973.

Was the match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs fastened?

Both Riggs and King got equal alternative within the match and it was pretty performed out.

The match featured a $100,000 winner-take-all purse.

Was Billie Jean King associates with Bobby Riggs?

While many thought Riggs and King had been enemies, they had been truly associates.

“[Battle of the Sexes] was about much more than tennis,” King once said. “It was a great day to celebrate equality. As for Bobby and me, many thought we were bitter enemies. The truth was we were friends. I’m thinking about you today on your birthday Bobby and I’ll be thinking about you again in September. Love you.”

What affect did the Battle of the Sexes have?

King’s victory, together with the passage of Title IX, is commonly credited for encouraging a big improve in ladies’s sports activities participation and for empowering ladies to advocate for equal pay in all areas of the workforce.