On September 20, 1973 women’s tennis star Billy Jean King squared off against Bobby Riggs in an exhibition match that was called the “Battle of the Sexes. Riggs was a 55 year old former Wimbledon champion and he boastfully bragged that he could be any women and after many sexiest and misogynistic comments Billy Jean king accepted his challenge. One Riggs best comments prior to the match was “the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot.” The match took place at the Houston Astrodome and was attended by 30,492 fans who got to see Billie Jean King beat the pants and sox off Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3.
The historical past has everything to do with the present as it relates to women’s tennis, last weekend The CEO of the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament Raymond Moore said women players ride the coattails of the men in comments before Serena Williams met Victoria Azarenka in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open. “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport,” Moore said. “They really have.” Link. As in customary fashion the current women’s great star Serena Williams was asked her opinion as to what was said by Mr. Roger Moore and she had a strongly worded response expressing her opinion.
I have a solution to all this, let’s start the process of preparing for a math between Serena Williams and Mr. Roger Moore. Let’s see clearly if he can back his words up against women’s tennis current greatest player. Let’s schedule the match for September 20, 2016. To sweeten the proposed offer let’s say that the match will be played by the men’s rules requiring a best out of 5 sets. When the match has ended let’s see who’s on their knees doing the thinking.
Fred Cromartie, Ed. D.
Dr. Cromartie is the Director of Doctoral Studies at the United States Sports Academy, he can be reached at cromarti@ussa.edu