Bobby Riggs

Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs (February 25, 1918–October 25, 1995) was a 1930s/40s tennis champion who gained even more fame in 1973 at the age of 55 as a result of challenge matches against two of the top female players in the world.

Tennis Hustler

For many years while in retirement Riggs was a well-known tennis hustler and made a living by placing bets on himself to win matches against other, apparently better players. In order to entice fresh victims to play him, he would handicap himself with such weird devices as using a frying pan instead of a tennis racquet for the match. Whatever the handicap, Riggs generally won his bets.

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A master promoter of himself and the game, in 1973 he saw an opportunity to make money and to elevate the popularity of a sport he loved. Although 55 years old, he deliberately played the male chauvinist card and came out of retirement to challenge one of the world's greatest female players to a match, claiming that the female game was inferior and that a top female player couldn?t beat him even at the age of 55. The cagey Riggs challenged Margaret Smith Court, the mother of three children who at the time was recovering from an injury. In their May 13, 1973 Mother's Day match in Ramona, California, Riggs used his patented drop shots and lobs, referred to by some in the press as rinky-dink tennis, to keep an unprepared Margaret Court off balance. His easy 6–2, 6–1 victory landed Riggs on the cover of both Sports Illustrated and Time magazine.

Related Topics:
1973 - Male chauvinist - Margaret Smith Court - Ramona, California - Sports Illustrated - Time magazine

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