biography
| name: |
Riggs, Bobby
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| |
popular name of Robert Larimore Riggs
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1918–95)
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| biography:
| Tennis player, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He began playing tennis seriously by age 11 and was coached in his early years at tennis by two women, Dr Esther Bartosh and the coach Eleanor Tennant. As an amateur, he helped the USA win the Davis Cup in 1938, then won the Wimbledon and US singles in 1939. After winning the US singles again in 1941, he turned professional and played for another 10 years. In 1973 he emerged from retirement when he claimed that any half-decent male player could defeat even the best female players; he challenged Margaret Smith Court, then a leading woman player, to a winner-take-all match on national television and defeated a ‘psyched’ Court (6–2, 6–1). Pressing his point, later that year he played Billie Jean King, who routed him in three straight sets. But even though he was humiliated before millions of television viewers, he was smiling all the way to the bank, for it was known that he was an inveterate gambler and these television performances had netted him a handsome payoff. He continued to enjoy the limelight for some time as an over-the-hill hustler-player. |
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