On 20 September 1973, at the Houston Astrodome, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in three sets: 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. The match, sold as the Battle of the Sexes, went beyond tennis. Riggs, 55, a former Wimbledon and US national champion, had built his comeback on challenges and on diminishing women’s tennis. In May he had beaten Margaret Court.

King was 29 and one of the voices for equal prize money. The show included theatrical entrances and dense promotion. Global audience figures vary; this article does not turn them into a single number.

The win contradicted Riggs’s narrative. The age gap and exhibition format matter: this is not a general “biological proof”, but a period match, played and televised as a public argument.

1973 was also the year the women’s professional tour organised itself and the US Open paid equal prizes. King kept campaigning for access and recognition.

The “battle” did not solve inequality in sport. It moved the debate into a media space unprecedented then.

The 53rd anniversary is read in the 1970s context, not as an eternal test of “women versus men”.

Image: Billie Jean King, 1973 / Wikimedia Commons. A portrait from the match year, not a frame from the Houston Astrodome. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Battle of the Sexes | Billie Jean King; Billie Jean King | International Tennis Hall of Fame.