Game, set & smash

As Aryna Sabalenka prepares to take on Nick Kyrgios in tennis's new Battle of the Sexes clash, SPENCER VIGNES looks back at the 1973 match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that shattered gender stereotypes and helped drive women's equality in sport - and in the wider world

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T has been dubbed The Battle of the Sexes, a festive season tennis showdown in Dubai between former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, the sport's so-called bad boy, and Aryna Sabalenka, best female player on the planet.

Australian Kyrgios, representing “the men’s side” as he describes it, reckons he will win comfortably tomorrow despite having only played six competitive matches in the past three years.

“Do you really think I have to try 100%?” he even suggested at one point.

Belarusian tennis player Sabalenka, on the other hand, is determined to “try my best and kick his ass”.

It’s controversial, it's entertaining, it's degrading, it’s box office, it’s divisive - depending on which side of the fence you're on.

And, for those of a certain age, if you think history is repeating itself, then you're right.

The year was 1973. Flares were all the rage along with platform shoes, glam rock and David Cassidy. A woman's place, according to many, was in the kitchen. When it came to tennis, a sport which had only gone professional five years previously, women were still very much second-class citizens, bereft of competitive tournaments to play in and earning far less than the men.

Enter 55-year-old Bobby Riggs.

A self-proclaimed “male-chauvinist pig”, Riggs had been one of the best tennis players in the world back in his day, capturing Wimbledon's prestigious triple crown in 1939 by winning the men's singles, the men's doubles and the mixed doubles.

By 1973, however, Riggs had garnered a reputation as an opinionated hustler. Whether he meant half of what he said remains open to debate. Nevertheless, his skills at self-promotion and winding people up were second to none.

Declaring that the women's game was far inferior to that of the men's, Riggs started laying down a series of challenges to some of the best female players of the era.