Mother's Day Massacre | Margaret Court vs Bobby Riggs
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 жов 2024
- The historic tennis match known as the "Mother's Day Massacre" was the first Battle of the Sexes played between Margaret Court and Bobby Riggs on Mother's Day 1973. This previously lost footage was found in 2014. The footage features interviews with Hollywood elite who predicted the outcome of the match on camera including Bill Cosby.
I was the ball boy for this match. Im in the back right side. Vic Braden got me the gig. I was 15 yrs old.
Dood thats awesome!!!👋👋👋 high five!!
Wtf That was me!
@@FruchtigeNuss what?!?! Who was it man?!?! You or Brian?!?! 😂😂😂
@@codycriss7910 they’re both lying it was me. Vic got me the job.
Bro you sound like a meth tweaker... what happened to that good little boy?
By the way, the reason that the editing job for this match is so terrible is because it was literally saved from the garbage pail by someone. This match was about to be thrown away in it's entirety (literally) but bits and pieces were able to be salvaged from the trash can for posterity. Thank goodness for whomever it was that saved parts of the match that were able to be salvaged.
Thanks for explaining. It's too bad they don't have the full tape.
Yes thank you for the explanation. I was getting pissed
It was probably saved on VHS tape and those go back pretty quick.
it sounds like you saved this lol
He's lying to you. I filmed this on my Nokia but it was in bad condition. True story.
Amazing footage! Thank you so much for posting. How is the world could this match footage end up in the garbage?!?!? This shows very clearly for those of us that play even competitive rec tennis 4.0+ levels....the racket and string technology limitation of the day. I know I know I know they look slow and terrible. But they were extremely good, and with today's equipment, would hit like what we are used to seeing.
Putting the equipment aside what this clearly shows is that men and women are clearly different in regards to our physical abilities.
@@CouncilOfDort Absolutely and that is a well researched truth and biological fact.
Any reference to how sports technology in tennis changed the game?
@@CouncilOfDort Riggs won a psychological battle against Court who had prepared for a power game and instead, all she got was persistent soft-balling, Riggs was playing a slower game that most of the female opponents Court was used to facing. His ball control though was extraordinary.
@@pricejb1 *"Riggs won a psychological battle against Court who had prepared for a power game and instead, all she got was persistent soft-balling, Riggs was playing a slower game that most of the female opponents Court was used to facing. His ball control though was extraordinary."*
LOL... So a superior tennis player has to "prepare" for an inferior opponent. And if the inferior opponent attempts... errr... psychological trickery... then the superior player is unable to detect the trickery, and the inferior trickster must always end up winning the match?
That is your assertion?
A 55 yr old chain smoking hard drinking hard partying man is simplying toying with her. She won 24 GS titles and is considered one of the top 5 female players ever. Bobby Riggs barely breaks a sweat in this match
This comment makes me want to cry lol
Sucks that women have to break our backs all the time and push ourselves to our limits while a “55 yr old chain smoking hard drinking hard partying man” can easily beat us. Life is unfair and always be. I want to be a man sometimes
@@amberlerae6033 there are things you can do that we can’t, it’s just the way it is. When my wife catches a cold she will fight me to the death before taking a sick day off work, but when I have a cold I wish I was never born. I could draw a thousand comparisons equally as black and white and still have thousands more. Just different, nothing to feel bad about!
Have a good look. She’s got the edge in service power (1st and 2nd), back court forehand power and volleys. He won by hitting easy shots to her backhand. On this day Court was hitting her backhand shockingly badly. He was practically lobbing it to her backhand she was missing the simplest shots. No idea why she wasn’t trying to run around it for a forehand (which was looking fantastic), even when the ball was almost down the middle of the court.
@@amberlerae6033 I want to be a robot sometimes or a superhero
@David Gordon what are you talking abour
Let’s all thank Helen Keller for these wonderful highlights
This made me cackle.
Me too lol
Bill Cosby looking whacked out of his mind, AND O.J. Simpson? It's like a Christmas miracle.
Laughed out loud.
Strange how times move along and we find out how terrible some people really are!
lol Cosby was innocent
@@PurplePinkRed proof?
QUALUDES!!!!
Pancho Segura's the only one that nailed this match. Trabert talks about Court's power and depth of shots ... what power and depth of shots??
I was thinking the same thing. I had never seen Margaret Court play and wasn't too impressed. The women's game has come a long way.
Court played poorly in this match. She was usually a lot better. Also crappy wooden rackets with little heads on them doesn't help to make the standard look good.
@@mrpolite3257 Easily to look crappy when against superior competition.
Where is the full match?
I did not knew Woody Allen played tennis so well to beat Margaret Court.
lame
Interesting, I named my dog Oscar
Actually, it was Austin Powers.
You can't watch this and not realize that Riggs DID throw the match against King later, obviously for gambling reasons...
Looks like Bill Cosby mixed up his drinks
Margaret played very poorly and allowed her nerves to get in the way. She didn't come to the net, which was her strength, she allowed Bobby to 'soft ball' her, she made unforced errors galore - she got psyched out pure and simple.
She was also playing a man! 🤣🤣
She lost because ahe is a women trying to play against a man. It's as simple as that. Stop all the other nonsense.
It wasn't nerves. It was skill and ability. She lost bro. Just admit it. Stop handling professional women athletes with kid gloves. She was nervous. She got beat. Full stop.
How do you win all those GS titles if you can't handle your nerves. Simple answer, it wasn't nerves that made her lose.
Yeah a man beat her. Are you dumb?
Its funny though one female at the start of the match said, Bobby wear glasses He is 55 old guy cant beat Margaret and the end result. LOL
The gorgeous Rosie Casals.
She also said he was about to have a coronary.
She had a pretty mouth I know one thing she's good at
@dave4248 If you did, you'd assume wrong.
Reading Riggs's autobiography, he made it clear for weeks before the match that he was going to play a soft game against Court. For some reason she and her team didn't prepare for that; she stayed on the baseline, making Bobby's job fairly easy.
So odd to me because even when young in his heyday, riggs, was a crafty strategic player with no real weapons, except his mind. So why did Court and all her hitting partners didn't believe how he would play? They outpsyched themselves! In reality, Court (like king) could have just got the ball back, stayed literally in the middle of the court and simply won just thru better endurance and conditioning. King had the advantage not because she didn't know how riggs played or margaret's lousy play, but she too was a strategic mind and could junkball just as good if not better than riggs. She had more variety that court as well. And this combined with her conditioning and training led King to her victory.
So glad someone posted this...I wanted to judge the tanking of the King match. After watching, I think it's clear Bobby tanked. He was pretty flawless here.
Jay Kraft
BTW, I think it's interesting that Riggs followed a classless act (throwing the Battle of the Sexes II Match) with decades of class, taking the secret to his grave. Personally, I think he was protecting both the legacy, and Billy Jean.
I think it shows that they had great admiration for each other, even at the time, and it was something that grew over time, up to Bobby's death. BJK told Bobby she loved him, and I think he loved her too.
To BJK: don't feel the need to debate folks who clearly see that he threw the match (he did). Nobody can know 100%, and of course at this stage it doesn't matter. He protected the legacy, and you.
why is it so hard for you to believe that king could take riggs? she was a entirely different player and character then court.. 1) king loved pressure and drama, court didn't 2) king was in better shape then riggs obviously 3) the indoor and carpet surface was to king's liking 4) king was a master tactician just like riggs and unlike court 5) king had just as much variety as riggs once again unlike court..
all the information available points to a tank:
1) his son says he didn't practice at all ... he practiced 6 hours a day for the Court match
2) he was known for tanking matches
3) tennis experts who knew him say he could whip her easily
4) the footage of him against Court shows a completely different player than in the King match
5) his son says he met with Mafia guys even a week before the match
6) He was known for an extremely consistent serve, his serve was about 50% for the King match
He tanked.
Jay Kraft your basing your view on his son's comments (without knowing, couldn't te son be making excuses? i'm just saying) and that documentary about the match from various sources, however, why not address how and why the differences between court and king against riggs.. and who are these "tennis experts" who knew him that said he could whip her easily? just curious.
and i find it hard that riggs would risk his reputation and the monumental meaning of his loss to king, and tanking on purpose for a paycheck of just how much? i mean we aren't talking millions and millions here i don't think.. winning against king he would eventually have made so so much more and parlayed his fame and the attention for a few years longer into even more fame, attention and money... lastly, couldn't it just be that for this 1 match, riggs himself choked?...
It may never be known just how much money he bet against himself (and pocketed). It was reported that he bet $1M on Conners in the Conners/Navratilova battle of the sexes, with Conners needing to give away less than 8 games for Riggs to win the bet, and Conners barely pulled through by the req'd margin. Conners reported seeing Riggs sitting there looking very nervous after a 7-5 first set.
Mike Myers vibe
Marg Court here looks so well toned.
I'd struggle (like most) when mostly high balls are coming over
Thanks for uploading this. I had never seen this match. Now I have a better idea how Riggs beat her. She just stayed at the baseline, didn't adjust her game, didn't seem to try too hard, and didn't play well. Riggs on the other hand, played great, much better than he did against BJK where he was making errors all over the place.
besides choking beyond belief, it's like she was confused to IF she should try or not? like if she looked like she wasn't trying it would look bad for the crowd and make her look bad for her not taking it seriously, but then if it looked like she was trying and trying hard, it would look bad that she HAD to try so hard to win such a man against such a opponent!...
@@mbblover Precisely what Bobby was taking advantage of. He was the most expert gambler ever and specialized in pressure bets. Jack Kramer called him one of the best players EVER. The only player to win the Wimbledon Triple MS, MD and MD. while betting on himself and winning a fortune. That´s pressure playing.
Some people who knew Riggs well believed he threw the match against BJK as a way of paying off his gambling debts to the Mafia.
@@mbblover she definitely tried. Are you nuts?
Really?? Riggs beat the #1 player in female tennis... and then propped up billy jean king match and just lost it? LOL. Ya, that's called making a shit ton of money betting against yourself.
Interesting to see how much the tennis sport has advanced since that time. Both look like playing in slow-motion hitting soft balls. One reason for sure is that the rackets, strings and balls of today allow a much more powerful and faster game. The sport has also become way more athletic. Both, Riggs and Court can't be described as "athletic" by today's standards. I've seen 11 years old girls playing a much more powerful and faster Tennis.
You are talking about one the of the greatest women players of all time and one of the most versatile male players of all time here. Have a look at the work Riggs is putting on the ball - side spin, back spin, flat. Serve wise kickers, slice, flat, sliders.... he's got it all. Courts serve and first volley would still be pretty much the best in the women's game as well - look at where she lands in in the box and where Riggs takes it for the return. I honestly don't think you realise the difference between champions like this pair and even a good college level player - let alone 11 year old girls.
Woman is a noun, not an adjective.
Riggs was 55 years old
If Riggs was 55 now, he'd beat all the junior girls using the same tactics (assuming he had a modern racquet). Power is the least important attribute in a tennis stroke.....depth, spin placement, power, anticipation, and variety are the keys to winning. When he hits a soft pinning shot with depth, that's a very difficult shot to hit hard with placement....if you massage it back, you're playing his game and he's got you.....she should have tried to serve and volley, or serve and approach in two steps. But he had a much better game, she really didn't have much of a chance.
Why you watching 11 year old girls?...
He was 55 and lived to 77 which is a normal life expectancy. So she is probably not the best at medical advice. If she thought he had health problems she could give him advice what to do about it instead of just trash talking him.
I remember watching this. I was 7 years old and the battle of the sexes was a big topic.then. Riggs just seemed to make it look so easy when he beat Court that day. Watching it now I have to say that it must have been difficult for Court to deal with such accuracy from Riggs, and the intimidation factor of him keeping her running around at the ball travelling at far reduced speeds than what she was was accustomed to. I used to be a baseball pitcher, and you wouldn't believe how many batters you could get with change up pitches.
Indeed. Timing attack is the most sophisticated level of attack employed only by the highest adepts. Its the difference between the Three and The Rest.
Now they just say men = women, so the problem disappears
She's using slice for almost everything which is weird, slice does not seem her strong suit .... he keeps hitting high balls to her backhand which is a great tactic even in modern day tennis .. and she seems to be having trouble handling the expectations of being the no.1 woman's player playing an old man .... her confidence is rather low you can tell ....
I think it was Bobby "Rigged." 😃
Court is too good to miss so many easy shots.
@@88feji *"...she seems to be having trouble handling the expectations of being the no.1 woman's player playing an old man .... her confidence is rather low you can tell ...."*
Everything makes much more sense when you acknowledge reality as.... you know... _reality._ Replace "No. 1 women's tennis player" with "No. 643 tennis player" and everything makes a _whole_ lot more sense.
I despise propaganda.
Riggs is playing like I play with my 12 year old son. He is hardly trying.
Exactly! But the women who can't tell a tennis racket from a hockey stick would like to believe so
Cope
@@Classified564 Dude was in deep with the mob and brilliantly swindled most into believing his performance
This is the same year that Court won 3 out of 4 Slams and went out of Wimbledon at the Semi final stage. She was the BEST female player out there at that time..... Which speaks volumes! As for Riggs, he was a 'player' in more than one sense of the word.
Yep, that is why I love the drop shot. I am not the best at Tennis, but I can usually beat a better player with one. Get them frustrated and they make mistakes.
And this is the same year (just 4 months later) that Billie Jean King beat Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3… Which speaks volumes! About King Riggs AND Court.
@@rosem5044 C'mon, you cannot be serious..... It's an open secret that Riggs threw the King game to clear gambling debts owed to the mob. The Court massacre was the front to generate action on him for the King match. The mob then made a killing.... Pardon the pun.
And they say she is the greatest? No chance!
@@rosem5044Except the fact that Riggs threw the match to pay his mafia debts
It looks slow because old style movie cameras needed to be much further back than they are nowadays. (To give greater depth of field for the focusing). This compresses the perspective. Nowadays, modern digital movie cameras can be very close and still focus for both fast moving balls and areas that cover a large distance ranges. Go to any tennis game and watch from a close distance - it looks fast. Then watch the same game from just ten paces further back - it looks almost in slow motion.
The lack of pace on their shots, even without today's rackets, was astounding. Looks like a top level high school player, male or female would destroy either one with today's game.
I started playing with a wooden racket back when graphite and titanium were unaffordable. I now own a cheap graphite and a cheap titanium racket (got them for $20 each) and these rackets completely change the game. You MUST change your swing with wooden vs. modern rackets. Today's rackets give you so much more power, you have to ease up and focus on control while with wooden rackets you had focus on full followthrough and power.
As they mention in the commentary, Bobby Riggs was deliberately soft balling Margret Court. Like so many players, she struggled when her opponents gave her no pace
Rackets today are way better. Bit of a stupid comparison.
It was more of a chess game back then. Shot placement was key. Of course it's a different game today. Even the great Pete Sampras who played in an era of speed wouldn't compete in todays game.
@@urwholefamilydied Are you kidding me??? Pete would serve anyone off the court in today's game! Pete had a big lead in the 3rd set against Federer in a 2008 exhibition match & eventually lost in a tiebreaker, & Pete was in his prime in the early to mid-90s. Pete would toy with today's players on fast courts, but he'd be in trouble on slow clay
I'm just amazed how much the game sped up in the 1980's when the rackets improved. It looks like they are just barely trying watching this now in 2023. She hit some shots into the net that were open sitters. Those aluminum and wood frame rackets were just hard to use.
Bill Cosby: Feminist
This comment did not age well.
As was OJ...
They actually called this "tennis" back in the day. It's astonishing how slow both the ball and the players were moving. Just move forward to 1989 to watch Graf vs. Navratilova to appreciate how much more athleticism came into play, and how much faster the ball got moving. I'm old enough to remember this Riggs vs. Court match, as I surely do, but looking back on it now I'm utterly perplexed how Margaret Court could have dominated the women's circuit... including over Billie Jean King. I mean, she's as slow as all get out and her shots are quite lame. Thank you, Martina, for changing the course of women's tennis!
I love the thunk of the ball hitting those rackets.
The standard here is nothing short of dreadful!
+steenglish OMG I was like I could not only beat both of these players but maybe give them a head start to boot. Woeful standard of play!
It really is fuckin abysmal
it's the racquet technology. They can't do what we do today
+Sally Rogers rubbish I've seen some great games from this era. As the previous poster said Abysmal!
This was Riggs' tactic. He was giving Court nothing but junk and moonballs and she couldn't handle it. The ultimate hustler. The warm up was probably better tennis.
The huge interest in tennis generated by this match (and the one with Billie Jean King) seems to have died down. But for a little while it was difficult to find an available tennis court to play on.
Exactly right, it helped tennis grow at that time. I was 15 at the time of the Riggs/ King match and hadn't played much tennis but I watched that match . It sparked my interest and I started playing some. By the later 70's my brother and I couldn't even find a court to play on as they were all filled. We had never seen anything like that.
Riggs is pushing the ball and sneaking up to the net at the same time. He was in Court's head big time.
Then he pulled the best work of all time to pay off his debts by "losing" to King. It astounds me to this day that people still believe he didn't throw that match
Indeed. I read that Bobby was a notorious gambler who had incurred massive debts, and agreed to take a dive for Billie Jean in return for a huge sum of money, the amount of which was never disclosed.
Most people do not know that Bobby lost TWO matches to middle aged transsexual player Renee Richards, who had compiled a mediocre record on the women's tour. When that took place, a lot of people changed their minds about him losing legitimately to Billie Jean. It was all theater.
My dude looks like Austin Powers
He wasn’t even trying and he completely pumped Margaret on the wrong un
It was obvious he threw the King match
They played twice. Riggs was set to play Chris Everett next for a million if he beat King the first time.
McEnroe says he did.
I agree it was said he liked to gamble.I wonder did he have a bet.
It's pretty amazing that mcenroe is the same age as Riggs is when he played this match . I don't think Riggs could get a single game from a 56 year old mcenroe
Thats true!
Don't be so sure.
McEnroe kept himself in peak condition and played consistently on the veterans circuit. I can't see McEnroe losing to any woman even now.
She played badly here. Her game was all about attacking the net and she played mainly from the baseline. He was in much better shape than when he played King but I do think if she'd played her normal game she would have run him very close.
He played transsexual Renee Richards four years later when he was 59 in two close matches but lost both. She was never ranked above 20 in the world as a woman. McEnroe on the other hand was competing and winning regularly on the veterans circuit in his mid 50s. So I don't think Riggs would have been very competitive against him. I can't see McEnroe losing to any woman even in his late 50s. Even now at 61 he could probably beat any woman in the world. Incidentally McEnroe was the oldest player to win a main tour event when he won a doubles tournament at the age of 47.
This was actually a huge upset - Court was a better player than BJK back then and should have been able to just flat out overpower Riggs. But Riggs was a much better player than she gave him credit for, he trained hard, scouted her and came up with a brilliant strategy to neutralize her power and play a junk ball game she'd never seen. Riggs really wanted to play BJK who was more willing to engage in banter that would hype the match, and he knew had to win this match. Court saw this as an exhibition and never took it or Riggs seriously.
No, I saw Riggs near 60 play doubles against Connors in his prime and Riggs hands were good enough to handle Connors big shots. No way Court could overpower him.
exactly.. you have to think she NEVER ONCE? served and volleyed? come on! that would be like teenage evert suddenly serving and volleying for a entire match! she and everyone advising her HAD TO KNOW how he was going to play her.. riggs was even in his prime NEVER a power player.. and yes, as you mentioned other women played "riggs like" against court.. and like king, even perhaps MORE then king, court was literally olympic caliber fit, she could have just got the ball back and outlast riggs in 50 plus shot points! riggs trained but he was STILL 55 YEARS OLD and of course also had nowhere her speed around the court either!. for court to play the entire way and doing it horribly for the ENTIRE MATCH defies logic and belief...greatest choke of in tennis history and no excuse!
Which makes one wonder if he was really trying against BJK.
Nate He wasn't. Riggs threw the match to cover gambling debts
he threw against bjk
wow , wow , Mr Riggs has had such smooth ground stroke , very effortless strokes .....look at that second slice serve accuracy ....very very smart player.
Average at best. Court played rubbish. BJK killed him less than a year later. Thankfully.
@@posttenebras2812
You mean the match he threw?
@@imadbasayev8541 😆BJK had strengths (great backhand, approach shots) that played to his weaknesses (average slice backhand and weak second serve) unlike Court and also wasn't killed by nerves like Court was. She beat him up quite nicely. Did you watch the match?
@@posttenebras2812
You're right, I'm converted, women are as good as men.
I'm sure you'll join me in calling for an end to segregated tennis and establishing one open division where these equally powerful and talented women can beat up on the men, right? 😉😉
@@imadbasayev8541 Nice deflection from the real point: A talented woman beat up an arrogant jerk who was 15 years past his best playing days. In general, the best women will not beat the best men. e.g. Connors vs Navratilova when she was at her peak.
Tennis is all about concentration and footwork. Look at the ball, move yourself, bend the knees and stay away from the lines. Especially in those days.
Court couldn't handle the pressure. Rigg had no pressure, because he was nearly an old man. He knew, that he had nothing to loose. Court was in her prime time and was even taller and she had a really bad start. If you play against a pusher, don't forget to move the feet and fight for every point.
She should have moved him around in the first games. But she didn't.
When the commentator says he thinks Riggs is just toying with Court he was saying what most normal people would be thinking 'no kidding'. When Riggs played Billy Jean Kind and threw the match and she claimed a 'great victory' I wonder how many people especially the men thought..of course it ...of course it was.
King's "victory" became unraveled when Riggs later lost TWO matches to 40-something transsexual Renee Richards who had mediocre results on the women's tour. (It was obvious this was all done for money and for theater). In later years, in REAL battle of the sexes matches, a semi-retired Jimmy Connors clobbered Martina Navratilova in a handicap match that allowed certain advantageous rules for Martina. Still later, the Number 100 male player in the world, a guy from Germany, destroyed first Serena and then Venus Williams in back to back matches that featured no handicap advantages for the women. (He admitted to having a McDonald's Happy Meal and two cigarettes right before the matches).
@@nassauguy48 Sept 2, 1998 Australian Open. Karsten (ranked 203 at the time) took up the challenge that the Williams sisters 'could beat any male outside the top 200'.
Karsten himself described in a hilarious article how it all went and how he thrashed them 6-1 and 6-2 in very short order.
But 3 months later when one of the sisters saw him she told him 'that thing in Australia, it never happened'.
Feminists like these the world does not need.
@@justjames1111 Well, if it never happened, I suggest that she watch the videotape again! :D
@@justjames1111 *""Feminists" **-like these-** the world does not need."*
Fixed that for ya!
There is no evidence that Riggs threw the match. That was a conspiracy concocted up by neckbeards such as yourself who throw fits when they find out women exist.
How nicely quiet the game was.
couple of quick comments -- first, everything looks slower on tv vs. in person, second, Riggs played a junk ball game, something Court had probably never seen. Like another poster said, it was like throwing changeups to a lineup of fastball hitters, and watching them get frustrated and strike out a lot.
Junk was commonplace back then.
this is like 3 year old level today
Riggs knew how to set up a sting to perfection: Rule #1 is that the mark cannot ever suspect they've been taken. This set-up blew out the odds of a Riggs loss against King, yet she still thinks that he didn't dump the match against her for a massive payout to this day.
Billie Jean cannot ever admit Riggs tanked their match at the Houston Astrodome.
That would take away every ounce of significance of what she achieved, esp in the eyes of the feminists.
Oh stop. What’s your point? Then he’s the best feminist ever.
@@denisecasalino9295 For a payday that Riggs got??? Yes, he's the best feminist ever. Homeboy would wear ladies underwear for a payout. He destroys the number one female player in the world handily... then loses to Billie Jean ? He played everyone. And made a bunch of money.
@@denisecasalino9295 Riggs didn't care about the societal effect. His target was the betting audience.
@@urwholefamilydied It is obvious to anyone who knows tennis that he could never beat BJK playing like that. He wouldn't have beaten Court if she had been properly prepared. It was all mind-games.
Bobby said... Find a MA'AM for me to play at least 🤣 🤣 🤣
Terrible job of editing, with points interrupted before they are completed.
Alan Snipes I was frustrated by those, too, but I guess seeing some points is better than none because the most I'd seen before this was just, like, match point on old highlights.
Thats not the way it was edited, you geeks. That's just the material and how it was saved.
Alan Snipes it was edited to NOT SHOW any of Courts' winning points...sad so bias...
Brian Taylor Well, she couldn't have had that many. Also, the word you want is "biased" (an adjective), not "bias" (a noun).
Jeff Vader ...thanks for the grammar lesson.... Lord Vader...lol
I was the ball boy for this match. Im in the back left side. Dick Braden got me this gig. I was 14 years old.
Will the real ball boy please stand up.
I think I could actually beat her :D
Great to see this post, but what's with the editing? Very few points are shown start to finish. Even though Court's quality of play wasn't great, it would be fun to see this one - and the Riggs/King match - in their entirety.
it's from the 1970's and people keep complaining about editing?!?!? Build a time machine. Problem solved!
holy shit i live by the court they played on
Riggs notoriously threw the match versus King
Really interesting match. Riggs wasn't a joke. He had incredible touch and a great net game. The women's pro players didn't have any answer for it. While this was a spectacle, I think it did a lot to promote women's tennis.
You really thought this was a match? When you going to take your first tennis lesson?
LOL! Not correct! Billie Jean King beat him in one of the most famous matches in history. 😂
@@edgar7525read up on Riggs more son
Are you dumb or just lying? Everyone knows Bobby threw the match.
I know the equipment is better now but still the slow pace of this was just unbearable. I don't know why Tony Trabert said before the match that Margaret hits the ball hard. Regardless of the old racquets she didn't have a topspin backhand so every backhand was just a backspin floater. Bobby's second serve looked like it was about 40 mph and Margaret still couldn't hit winners off of it. This was pretty brutal.
A lot of it was the tech man.. Those wooden racquets sucked something awful.. Hitting the sweet spot was just so hard to do..
It's why in those days you had so many serve and volley players. Once the tech really started to evolve in the late 80's and early 90's it became a baseline game..
Riggs employed the same strategy that Ashe used to beat Connors at Wimbledon two years later: feed the opponent junk and frustrate them like crazy. They were both two of the greatest tennis hustles of all time. Equally impressive was BJK’s demolition of Riggs in the follow up match.
Actually Margaret won 12 of the last 20 matches she played against Billie Jean king. In 1973, the year of this footage she took 3 of 4 from King. I don’t think King was a better player than Margaret but she did have a better tennis mind in terms of strategy. This allowed her to fair better against Riggs.
Court led in their rivalry by 21-13. Billie Jean won their first match (1st round at Wimbledon in 1962), then lost their next nine consecutive meetings, all in straight sets. In their last 24 matches, they were dead even at 12-12.
Somehow I think king manipulated the battle of sexes. Nice try to drum up her name. People raise her status more because she is gay. Otherwise there are more great tennis people to give flushing meadows center their name.
@@vidyasonavane9602 Raise her status BECAUSE she is gay!? Are you kidding me! There is so much homophobia in certain areas of the USA and the world. That would never have happened, except for the fact that she accomplished so much for the sport (men's and women's) and transcended sports into the fabric of everyday life with her endless battles for EQUALITY between men and women. She is one who truly matters.
@@vidyasonavane9602 I stand corrected, after recently reading a biography. BJK won their first match (in the first round of Wimbledon in 1962). Margaret was the #1 seed, and had won the Oz and Roland Garros titles. BJK, who was unseeded, upset her 1/6,6/3,7/5. Margaret then won their next nine meetings, without the loss of a SET. After that, they were DEAD EVEN in head to head matches at 12-12. Their rivalry ended up at 21-13 in Margaret's favor.
@@TheVerbalVolleyhe owed money to the mob through gambling debts. He clearly threw the BJK match
Cool vid. Thanks for posting.
Booby Riggs looks so much like Steve Carell.
Like country club tennis compared to the pros today....
Compared to Connors,Borg,Vilas and so on,who were best players back then,also.
These exhibition matches give a false view of men's and women's tennis. Men's tennis is on a totally different level than women's tennis. Serena Williams would get beat 6-0, 6-0 by a top male collegiate player.
markurbancowboy it's not about the best of men vs best of women. Sure, the male are physically superior to a certain extent, but the women are mentally capable of melting nerve wrecking situations as well. These matches though, prove that, there shouldn't be a generalisation. Sure Court lost this one, but he was defeated by Billy Jean. Billy Jean might not have been physically stronger then Bobby, but she did have the ability to endure the pressure and play a strategically sound game, and emerge victorious over a chauvinistic Riggs.
Bonni Darrell Abbott There's a rumor that Bobby threw the match
Bonni Darrell Abbott even, if you believe she genuinely won that game, he was over twice her age. Sure, a young, prime woman can beat a tired old man at tennis
markurbancowboy NO!!
Bonni Darrell Abbott, correct.
Tony Trabert says that he didn't think Bobby could handle the type of power Margaret has, but she had no power, just soft slices, because she was so nervous. She couldn't even slice the ball in play.
What's this with cutting out in the middle of points? Anyway. Margaret is really flustered, but Bobby has a lot to do with that. The ball is floating to the baseline and hanging there with absolutely no pace for Margaret to hit. Or, it's low and slow and makes you run, sort of like a semi-drop shot. I've played against that kind of player, and it's not easy until you learn to just have confidence in your shot and take your game to them. Margaret never did that, and seeing her tighten up is painful.
Riggs didn't play the same game against BJK. He gave BJK some pace to hit with, which made it MUCH easier for her, and his volleys during the BJK match were atrocious -- like unhurried volleys 5 feet from the net buried into the bottom of the net bad. Riggs was known as a superb volleyer, had a great, accurate overhead, and the best lob in the men's game. He was also perfectly capable of hitting the ball hard when he wanted to. So, where did all that go during the BJK match? The more I see the two matches side by side, I more I believe that he threw the second match.
You could not be more wrong. BJK was always an extremely aggressive player and he had no answer for her.
king was just as much of a master tactician and could junk the ball as much as riggs, add in she loved the attention and the drama and the pressure, and at 29 years old at the time had the fitness to hang with anything riggs could throw at her... in fact, because of all of this she on PURPOSE played mostly from the baseline, keeping the ball in play knowing she could outlast a 55 year old man, no matter what his conditioning was.. riggs played poorly, but king didnt' play that well either frankly..king was a WAAAAY different opponent and character then court..
Would have been best lob in women's game.
@@mbblover Not sure what you were watching but King played her usual net game. Analysts even noted the large number of points she won at the net. True, King at 29 was younger than Court. Court was an ancient 30. Lol. And Court was ranked Number 1. Riggs didn't play poorly against King. He got the ball to the right spots where King could hit it and control the points. Riggs also threw in some curious unforced errors. Riggs did hit a few winners, but only at non-deciding points. The more I compare the two matches, the more it appears Riggs threw his match with King.
O. J. Simpson: I have a twinge of premonition the knives will come out in that match.
How could that old man older enough to be Court's father win?
Some old guy in his ninety walked from San Diego, California to an eastern city in Georgia. Some people keep in shape.
Maybe both matches were fixed because Riggs was an expert gambler.
why the hell does the picture keep blanking - if you can't edit the video then don't post it ffs
Brent Musburger calling the shots in 1973! That guy goes back a long way.
This is terrible, we're not even seeing entire points. Not worth watching.
Riggs didn't play like that against King.
The mob would not have liked it
Riggs ended up playing as he was supposed to, to save his neck from the boys in the back room
Looks like a nice high school match.
Makes you wonder how Bobby Riggs could have lost to Billie Jean King after having devastated Margaret Court. He did a great thing for woman’s tennis in those two matches.
He was a degenerate gambler, right? lol
He threw that match for gambling reasons. HUGE gambling money on the King match.
Those rackets look like the old wooden ones somebody's parents would have laying around in the mid 80s that seemed like they had such a tiny surface and we were always told as kids they used actual cat guts to string them. Lol.
Bobby Riggs was a cagey tennis player who won Wimbledon in 1940 against Don Budge. Margaret Court didn't take him seriously until it was too late and she looked bad. And people forget, she was the #1 women's player not Billie Jean King. She was #3. So when the "Match of The Century" happened, he lost to the #3 player but beat the best women's player. So he DID prove his point.
I didn't even know there was another battle of the sexes match before the Billie Jean King won first found this out
The play looks so sedate compared to now. I might even be able to match their play for a couple of games.
i once read in a book but can't think of the book now that trabert and others hit with margaret leading up to this match and said she was hitting great and in great form... and that they were surprised and stunned and completely taken by surprise that riggs would hack and slowball her to death, tactics that hadn't seen or thought of? and that in hindsight this hitting and sparring was the WORST preparation for her against riggs!.... REALLY? riggs was NEVER KNOWN to be a hard hitter, aggressive, serve and volleyer or whatever even in his prime...did they actually think that riggs would try to outhit her? come on! i find this excuse to be quite frankly unbelievable..
Looks like slow motion tennis. LOL, this wouldn't cut it in the juniors today!
One would think that, with improved training and equipment, the great masses of amateur competitors would be playing at gradually increasingly NTRP levels.
But instead, the requirements for each level have simply become more stringent over the years.
@@fsilber330 I truly cannot believe how perceptive you are! I'm going to write that down
Damn...I wish I could go back in time and play Professional Womens Tennis...I would have been UNBEATABLE ! (..and I'm only a 4.5 USTA player)
Wow, both played so bad... Court-Smith in particular. Her so many direct faults were really "strange"...
Laughable that Riggs completely dominated like this against the number one women's player in the world and then claimed that he didn't throw the match against Billie Jean King and that she beat him fair and square.... because he didn't train; FOUR MONTHS later!
Amazing that this match has alot of footage. But the match with Billie Jean is nowhere to be found, why? Rumors are that Riggs threw the match which makes sense since he beat the no.1 player so easy, but then does horrible against the no. 4? Makes no sense. I wanted to compare his play here to the Billie Jean match to see if it looked like he threw the match. I searched everywhere but can not find the complete match
Supposedly when Riggs lost to King in the Houston Astrodome match in 1973, he was profusely sweating prior to the match because he had taken way too many vitamin pills of various types which must have really screwed up his metabolism! Plus he spent so much time publicizing that Houston Astrodome match granting interviews constantly in the weeks and days leading up to the match against King, that he basically wore himself out prior to that match. Yes, King flat out defeated him fair and square by out-playing him in that match, but Riggs ruined his chances against King for those two reasons!
where is the whole match ?
what is wrong with the editing??
They pretty much just showed all of the Riggs won volleys..
@@paulj0557tonehead It was a one sided match
Just FYI: Some of the story and highlights of this match were nicely recreated in the TV movie "When Billie Beat Bobby," starring Holly Hunter as Billie Jean King, in which the Court vs Riggs match is the launching pad for the King vs Riggs match in Houston.
I thought the person who played Margaret was terribly miscast. It reminded me of Morgan Freemam playing Malcolm X.
I never could play "junk ballers" very well, either. Generating your own pace can cause you hit a lot of balls long.
The struggle is real.
@@tim72184 ????????
Perfectly said.
I believe he originally asked Billie Jean King, she told him to get lost or something to that affect, when he beat Margaret Court, Billie Jean knew she had to play him, which she did and beat him in straight sets.😊
He threw the match LOL..
There was an ESPN piece on this a few years back.
Riggs was involved with the mob as he was a compulsive gambler and had rung up quiet a debt.. After beating Court so easy Riggs was a huge betting favorite over King.. Check out Court and King head to head record.. 22-10 in favor of Court..
Hard to believe at the time of this match, Margaret was the top-ranked #1 women's player in the world.
Seemingly paralyzed with fear and nerves, Margaret uncharacteristically made mistakes and quickly succumbed to Bobby in only 40 minutes.
Margaret let the occasion get to her and forgot to play her game.
A few hours after this match, Billie Jean King says "Yes" in challenging Bobby to another rematch in what would become widely known as the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in Houston later that year.
Paralyzed w fear or just outmatched?
Yep... she was actually ranked higher than Billie Jean King. Bobbie was also a known gambler... I'm sure he bet against himself when he played billie. Smart.
A 55 year old man beat her, that’s because he’s a man the keyword being man
@@urwholefamilydied Some people think Bobby dumped to BJK because he owed the mob money in lost sports bets that he made. I've read from different sources over the years that he didn't train hardly at all for King, and even partied too much a week or two beforehand. So it was the kind of thing where he knew he wasn't going to be on his game and didn't try to be. Hard to say.
maybe she was not in a good shape that day, or on her period day
1:02 Somebody must have did the old Switcharew on Bill and gave him is own sedative drugs. 😂🤣
Thanks for posting this - I had never seen any footage of it. So sad to see all of the chauvanistic comments at the beginning because those times were all about that. She choked so badly here - thank God for BJK. And seeing Bill Cosby is creepy AF
EDIT: I'm rooting against Margaret even though she's playing on behalf of women. She's the worst kind of hater - one who uses the name of God as a delivery mechanism.
Thank God for BJK? She beat a 56 year old hustler while in her prime 🤣🤣🤣
Lol "chauvinist" comments. If women were more honest and realistic about the differences between them then we could stop the fiction that women stand a chance against men in athletic competition. It's not chauvinist, its reality.
@@DickToles : This was an “Amazonian” woman against an old man - safe to say that it wasn’t “fiction” that she could compete at the same physical level so thanks for the irrelevant input.
@@pjesf she can't compete at the same physical. Women have tried to prove they can for decades now and none of them can. 15 year old boys are beating the best women in the world at their respective sports.
@@DickToles : While I agree with the general statement that women do not posess the same strength as men, it’s total BS here. Court was bigger, stronger, faster and should have been able to crush him.
One thing I immediately notice is that Riggs for 55 was in very good shape. It doesn't look like he had any excess pounds on him at all.
Then look at him in the King match, they say 15 LBs heavier
To me it looks like she couldn't even execute the simplest bread and butter slice backhands. She missed them over and over again in the bottom of the neat. Billie Jean King didn't play anything like that against him. She would have been better off just rushing up to the net, but I don't think she was clear headed enough to even think of doing that. What a disaster!
I don't think Steve Harvey's book Think Like A Man was published yet 🤣🤣🤣
Lol Bill Cosby sounded completely coked out 😂😂😂😂
Bobby Riggs destroyed Margaret Court mentally. He got in her head and it was all over at that point. You have to crush someone soft balling you. It’s the tennis version of saying “You are beneath me”. Bobby came into this match with no doubt in his mind who would win. He had no care in the world and was having a good time. Margaret Court, on the other hand, was a bunch of nerves.
no excuse for the biggest "choke" in tennis history.... would love to see the whole match... the fact that court actually if possible played worse and worse and got even less games (1!) in the second set then the first is mindboggling!... and she was so choking she didn't even change her game plan (did she have one?)? that defies logic from a everyday player much less one of the greatest female champions of all time!...no matter if riggs "trained" for hours he was a 55 year old man who even in his prime was NOT a physical specimen or powerful player and he had not played tournament tennis for DECADES! and he was playing a woman who was known at the time to be the strongest most fittest of her generation and of course by 1973 had been playing regularly championship level tennis week in and week out for years (minus her childbirth years)... no excuse why she could have if she had to resort to this just get the ball back and win by sheer superior physical endurance! like i said riggs at 55 was NO JOHN MCENROE WHO AT 55 IS TRULY STILL in great shape and plays on the senior circut regularly getting top competition and match practice... if it was court vs a 55 year old john mcenroe i could see this result NOT a 55 year old riggs...
She just never looked in it mentally. She looked super nervous and then resigned.
Margaret had a problem with nerves during her career and to be honest ive never seen her play worse and more tentative in what Ive seen her play, she is totally disabled by nerves here
Riggs hitting bloopers, and purposely not generating any power was something Court was not used to and he turned her into a fish out of water. All she needed to do was play his game but instead she tried to over power him which was a tactic the best men players couldn't do against him in his prime - so she had no chance. BJK played Riggs at his own game and turned it into a war of attrition and her superior fitness got her the result. Had BJK player her natural game and tried to over power Riggs she would have suffered the same fate as Court.
At least you understand the game. I think Riggs probably threw the match, but it's possible you have it right.
That whole thing about her 'nerves' is way overplayed. The woman's the greatest overall majors champion in the history of the sport. You don't get that by having problems with your nerves. She owned King, who was supposedly her greatest rival and closest in skill. Court played Riggs for the quick money, didn't really care much about the outcome, and was wasn't told there would be as much press coverage at the event itself.
It's me sure... that and a lack of skill compared to Riggs.
It's me
Lol excuses
Margaret was choking sooo bad. No energy whatsoever.
The editing is frustrating. Unwatchable.
She was 30 at that time and he was 55. And her total Grand Slams wins are 24, which is highest till now.
And how bad was she playing here! And they want equal pay
Simone Halle just best Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final in 42 minutes. Novak Djokovic best Roger Federer in 5hrs. Yet they got paid the same amount. It’s complete bullshit
He completely collapsed her mind. Bobby was an expert at pressure bets. Made his very good living at them since the 40s.
This is entertainment, not work. Maybe you should rail more at movie actors who get tens of millions per movie. Better still, you should be angry at Michael Spinks who was in the ring for 90 seconds' work for $13.6m (that would be maybe $20m today)
A lot of delusional feminists had humble pie that day 🥧
Editing massacre.
maybe it's just me but i sense a huge sexism from the old players like segura, budge, etcetera... in fact, they seem to REEK of it the way they acted, their too big smiles, their comments, and so on.... they were almost "boyish and childish" in glee to see their old boy riggs trouncing a woman any woman......perhaps it was just that era and way of thinking?.....
To say men are better than women at tennis is not sexist if its true. To make a general statement like "Men are better than woman" would be sexist. See the difference? Too many people today through around the word sexist and racist without knowing what it means.
its because they knew how good Riggs was.
Did Guy Ritchie edit this?
10:19 what the hell he could hit a drop volley with those racquets ?
He rigged the match bru he not even trying
Boring. Margaret Court looks completely uninspired and not into it.