--- title: Battle of the Sexes: What Really Happened, as Told in 1973 description: "The big evening maintained its P.T. Barnum air—at least until the principals squared off across the net," TIME reported after the match. canonical: https://time.com/4938913/battle-of-the-sexes-1973-report/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-19T13:00:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:52:07.093Z article:section: History og:title: Battle of the Sexes: What Really Happened, as Told in 1973 og:description: "The big evening maintained its P.T. Barnum air—at least until the principals squared off across the net" og:url: https://time.com/4938913/battle-of-the-sexes-1973-report/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cc8f56f676e01f6/6988dd8c97cdff66636b26ab/tennis.jpeg?branch=production&width=803&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 803 og:image:height: 452 og:image:alt: Battle of the Sexes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Battle of the Sexes: What Really Happened, as Told in 1973 twitter:description: "The big evening maintained its P.T. Barnum air—at least until the principals squared off across the net" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cc8f56f676e01f6/6988dd8c97cdff66636b26ab/tennis.jpeg?branch=production&width=803&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Billie Jean King Won the Battle of the Sexes, as Told in 1973 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=b286a481-d3c7-4281-867b-8da64a6ba590&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=b286a481-d3c7-4281-867b-8da64a6ba590&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Best New Movies to See in Fall 2017 [Watch (HLS stream): The Best New Movies to See in Fall 2017](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RLKjhCtf.m3u8) (2:37)  _Published 2017-09-21. Five films TIME can't wait to see this Fall._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2017 1:00 PM UTC The tennis match the world was watching this week in 1973 was a long time coming (and is now the subject of [a movie](http://time.com/4918594/best-new-fall-movies-2017/) with Emma Stone and Steve Carell, out Friday), but it was over relatively quickly. The so-called “battle of the sexes” of Sept. 20, 1973, which pitted Bobby Riggs against Billie Jean King, was over in three straight sets and just a little more than two hours. The sex part was, unsurprisingly, the focus of the attention: The pre-show entertainment for the 48 million television viewers included a rousing rendition of the song “[Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO23WBji%5FZ0),” and the competitors entered in fitting style, with King carried on a divan by a team of shirtless men and Riggs drawn by a group of the women he called his “bosom buddies.” But the game was, TIME [noted in the following week’s issue](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-01/page/126/), much more of a mismatch in terms of age and athletic ability. Riggs was 55 and King, at the prime of her career, was 29\. And the result of that difference was quickly clear, as the magazine noted: --- > “” --- In the wake of the match, which all admitted in hindsight should not have really seemed suspenseful, Riggs himself admitted that he had been overconfident about facing a woman and had not prepared for the match. He had spent so much time promoting the idea of the battle of the sexes that he hadn’t really trained for the big day. Posing for a post-match photo, however, he kept up the hustle, asking for a rematch and for a kiss from Billie Jean King for the cameras. But, despite his showman’s patter, she had shown him — or, as one TIME reader [put it](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-15/page/8/) in a letter to the editor, she had turned a male chauvinist pig into a meek “male chauvinist rabbit.” ## Transcript Fall is upon us which means a new season at the movies filled with the kinds of films we'll be talking about when award season rolls around. Here are five of the fall movies we're most excited about. First is Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell as tennis players Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. The move is based on the true story of a high stakes match the pair played in 1973 after the then retired Riggs Riggs who was fond of chauvinistic displays, challenged the much younger King who was beginning to speak out against unequal pay between male and female players. Keep talking, Bobby. More nonsense you spell, the worse it's going to be when you lose. Another hotly anticipated release is Bladerunner 2049, a sequel to the influential 1982 sci- fi classic Bladerunner. It updates the groundbreaking visuals of the original Original while meditating on questions that have only become more pressing in the three decades since. The future of the species is finally on Earth. At October 20th is Wonderstruck. My god. The rare movie that's mature enough to appeal to adults while still being both appropriate for and appealing to older Kids. The story follows two 12 year old separated by 50 years who both travels to New York City in search of an illusive but important adult figure in each of their lives. Another film we're looking forward too is Mudbound. It's an epic tale of two families, one the white land owner and the other, the blackshare coppers living on the The same piece of Mississippi land. And the late 30s and 1940s. She's the [ UNKNOWN ] backfire. [ MUSIC ] It's full of lush gorgeously lit shots of the world landscape and the [ UNKNOWN ] to life a wide array of issues. From the legacy of reconstruction to the impact of To World War Two on race relations in America. Super hero fatigue is real, but everyone's in a while there is a reason to think something might shake us out of it. In the case of Thor Ragnarok, it's a vision of director Taika Waititi. His is fashion this movie as 80s nostalgia favorite dream meets Body The buddies being Thor and Hulk. God, hot headed fools. Yeah, same, Hulk like fire, Thor like water. Well we kinda both like fire. Cate Blanchett joins as the villain and Jeff Goldblum shows up in blue face paint. So we really have no complaints with the way this one's. Shaping up. It was a rough summer at the box office but the fall is giving us more than a few reasons to head to the theater. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4938913/battle-of-the-sexes-1973-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4938913/battle-of-the-sexes-1973-report/"},"headline":"How Billie Jean King Won the Battle of the Sexes, as Told in 1973","datePublished":"2017-09-19T13:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:52:07.093Z","description":"\"The big evening maintained its P.T. 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