How it unfolded
Bobby Riggs, 55, a former Wimbledon champion, declared women could not beat men and on Mother's Day that May beat Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1. Billie Jean King, 29, initially declined but accepted after seeing that result. 30,472 packed the Astrodome — a tennis attendance record — with an estimated 90 million television viewers worldwide. King entered on a gold litter; Riggs on a rickshaw pulled by models. The tennis itself was sober: King ran Riggs side to side and neutralized his lob-and-drop veteran tactics. After taking the first set 6-4 she watched Riggs fade and closed 6-3, 6-3 for the $100,000 winner-take-all purse. That June she helped found the WTA; the US Open became the first major with equal prize money.
Why it still matters
Rarely has one tennis match shifted public debate outside sport. The win effectively settled the argument over whether women could compete under the same pressure on the same stage, and gave decisive backing to the WTA's founding and equal pay at the US Open. Much of women's professional sport's economic structure traces to these three sets.