Editing Billie Jean King (section)

====1973====
[[File:Fig4-Billie-Jean-Kings-dress-by-Ted-Tinling-1973.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|The dress worn by King in 1973 during the Battle of the Sexes match. The [[National Museum of American History]]]]
1973 was Margaret Court's turn to win three Grand Slam singles titles, failing to win only Wimbledon, and was the clear world No. 1 for the year; this was her first full season since winning the Grand Slam in 1970, as she had missed significant portions of 1971 and 1972 due to childbirth. As during the previous year, King started 1973 inconsistently. She missed the first three Virginia Slims tournaments in January because of a wrist injury.<ref>"King bows in, on courts", ''Daily Review'', [[Hayward, California]], February 8, 1973, page 30</ref> She then lost in the third round at the Virginia Slims of Miami tournament but won the Virginia Slims of Indianapolis tournament, defeating Court in the semi-finals 6–7, 7–6, 6–3 and Rosemary Casals in the final. The semi-final victory ended Court's 12-tournament and 59-match winning streaks,<ref>{{" '}}Sweetie' upset for Billie Jean", ''Oakland Tribune'', February 26, 1973, page E27</ref> with King saving at least three match points when down 5–4 (40–0) in the second set. Indianapolis was followed by five tournaments that King failed to win (Detroit, [[1973 Virginia Slims of Boston|Boston]], Chicago, [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], and the inaugural [[Family Circle Cup]] in [[Hilton Head, South Carolina]]). King lost to Court in two of those tournaments. After deciding not to defend her French Open singles title, King won four consecutive tournaments, including her fifth [[1973 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles|Wimbledon]] singles title when she defeated Kerry Melville Reid in the quarterfinals, Evonne Goolagong in the semi-finals on her eighth match point,<ref>"Evert Shatters Court, Sets Up American Finals", ''Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News'', July 5, 1973, page 2-C</ref> and Chris Evert in the final. King lost only nine points in the 6–0 bageling of Evert in the first set of their final.<ref>{{cite news |author=Jares, Joe |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1973/07/16/a-bloomin-winner/ |title=A Bloomin' Winner |publisher=[[Sports Illustrated]] |date=July 16, 1973 |access-date=July 4, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625151702/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1087561/index.htm |archive-date=June 25, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

King also completed the [[Triple Crown (tennis)|Triple Crown]] at Wimbledon (winning the singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles titles in the same year), thus becoming the first, and only, player to do so at Wimbledon in the Open Era. In none of the preceding tournaments, however, did King play Court. Their rivalry resumed in the final of the Virginia Slims of [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] tournament, where Court won for the third time in four matches against King in 1973. (This was the last ever singles match between those players, with Court winning 21 and King 13 of their 34 matches.) Three weeks later at the [[1973 U.S. Open – Women's singles|US Open]], King retired from her fourth-round match with Julie Heldman while ill<ref>{{cite book |author1=Starr, Cynthia |author2=King, Billie Jean |title=We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women's Tennis |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |year=1988 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wehavecomelongwa00king/page/144 144] |isbn=0-07-034625-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/wehavecomelongwa00king/page/144 }}</ref> and suffering from the oppressive heat and humidity. When Heldman complained to the match umpire that King was taking too long between games, King reportedly told Heldman, "If you want the match that badly, you can have it!"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollander |first1=Zander |last2=Collins |first2=Bud |author-link1=Zander Hollander |title=Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis |publisher=Visible Ink Press |location=Detroit, Michigan |year=1994 |page=[https://archive.org/details/budcollinsmodern00coll/page/196 196] |isbn=0-8103-9443-X |url=https://archive.org/details/budcollinsmodern00coll/page/196 }}</ref> The Battle of the Sexes match against Bobby Riggs was held in the middle of the Virginia Slims of Houston tournament. King won her first and second round matches three days before playing Riggs, defeated Riggs, won her quarterfinal match the day after the Riggs match, and then lost the following day to Casals in the semifinals 7–6, 6–1. According to King, "I had nothing left to give."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Starr, Cynthia |author2=King, Billie Jean |title=We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women's Tennis |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |year=1988 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wehavecomelongwa00king/page/145 145] |isbn=0-07-034625-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/wehavecomelongwa00king/page/145 }}
</ref> To end the year, King won tournaments in Phoenix, Hawaii, and Tokyo and was the runner-up in [[Baltimore]].

=====Battle of the Sexes=====
{{Main|Battle of the Sexes (tennis)}}
[[File:Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs 1973.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973]]
In 1973, King defeated [[Bobby Riggs]] in an exhibition match, winning $100,000 ($707,000 in 2024 terms<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1973?amount=1|title=$1 in 1973 → 2024 &#124; Inflation Calculator|website=www.in2013dollars.com}}</ref>).

Riggs had been a top men's player in the 1930s and 1940s in both the amateur and professional ranks. He won the Wimbledon men's singles title in 1939, and was considered the World No. 1 male tennis player for 1941, 1946, and 1947. He then became a self-described tennis "hustler" who played in promotional challenge matches. Claiming that the women's game was so inferior to the men's game that even a 55-year-old like himself could beat the current top female players, he challenged and defeated [[Margaret Court]] 6–2, 6–1. King, who previously had rejected challenges from Riggs, then accepted a lucrative financial offer to play him for $100,000 in a winner-takes-all match.

Dubbed "the Battle of the Sexes", the Riggs–King match took place at the [[Houston Astrodome]] in Texas on September 20, 1973. The match garnered huge publicity. In front of 30,492 spectators and a television audience estimated at 50 million people (U.S.), and 90&nbsp;million in 37 countries, 29-year-old King beat the 55-year-old Riggs 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. The match is considered a significant event in developing greater recognition and respect for women's tennis. as King said to author and photographer [[Lynn Gilbert]] in her book ''Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped Our Times'', "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match. It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self-esteem,"<ref name="ESPN-BillieJean">{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00016060.html|title=Billie Jean Won for All Women|last=Schwartz|first=Larry|access-date=February 15, 2007}}</ref> and that "to beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill for me. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Lynn |title=Particular Passions: Billie Jean King |url=http://particularpassions.com/Excerpts.htm |series=Women of Wisdom Series |edition=1st |date=December 10, 2012 |publisher=[[Lynn Gilbert Inc.]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0517545942}}</ref>