Mother's Day Massacre | Margaret Court vs Bobby Riggs 

I was the ball boy for this match. Im in the back right side. Vic Braden got me the gig. I was 15 yrs old.

By the way, the reason that the editing job for this match is so terrible is because it was literally saved from the garbage pail by someone. This match was about to be thrown away in it's entirety (literally) but bits and pieces were able to be salvaged from the trash can for posterity. Thank goodness for whomever it was that saved parts of the match that were able to be salvaged.

Let’s all thank Helen Keller for these wonderful highlights

I did not knew Woody Allen played tennis so well to beat Margaret Court.

Looks like Bill Cosby mixed up his drinks

Bill Cosby looking whacked out of his mind, AND O.J. Simpson? It's like a Christmas miracle.

A 55 yr old chain smoking hard drinking hard partying man is simplying toying with her. She won 24 GS titles and is considered one of the top 5 female players ever. Bobby Riggs barely breaks a sweat in this match

Amazing footage! Thank you so much for posting. How is the world could this match footage end up in the garbage?!?!? This shows very clearly for those of us that play even competitive rec tennis 4.0+ levels....the racket and string technology limitation of the day. I know I know I know they look slow and terrible. But they were extremely good, and with today's equipment, would hit like what we are used to seeing.

My dude looks like Austin Powers

Its funny though one female at the start of the match said, Bobby wear glasses He is 55 old guy cant beat Margaret and the end result. LOL

Pancho Segura's the only one that nailed this match. Trabert talks about Court's power and depth of shots ... what power and depth of shots??

Margaret played very poorly and allowed her nerves to get in the way. She didn't come to the net, which was her strength, she allowed Bobby to 'soft ball' her, she made unforced errors galore - she got psyched out pure and simple.

Reading Riggs's autobiography, he made it clear for weeks before the match that he was going to play a soft game against Court. For some reason she and her team didn't prepare for that; she stayed on the baseline, making Bobby's job fairly easy.

He was 55 and lived to 77 which is a normal life expectancy. So she is probably not the best at medical advice. If she thought he had health problems she could give him advice what to do about it instead of just trash talking him.

Bill Cosby: Feminist

Cool vid. Thanks for posting.

Mike Myers vibe Marg Court here looks so well toned. I'd struggle (like most) when mostly high balls are coming over

Riggs is playing like I play with my 12 year old son. He is hardly trying.

It was obvious he threw the King match

Thanks for uploading this. I had never seen this match. Now I have a better idea how Riggs beat her. She just stayed at the baseline, didn't adjust her game, didn't seem to try too hard, and didn't play well. Riggs on the other hand, played great, much better than he did against BJK where he was making errors all over the place.

I remember watching this. I was 7 years old and the battle of the sexes was a big topic.then. Riggs just seemed to make it look so easy when he beat Court that day. Watching it now I have to say that it must have been difficult for Court to deal with such accuracy from Riggs, and the intimidation factor of him keeping her running around at the ball travelling at far reduced speeds than what she was was accustomed to. I used to be a baseball pitcher, and you wouldn't believe how many batters you could get with change up pitches.

So glad someone posted this...I wanted to judge the tanking of the King match. After watching, I think it's clear Bobby tanked. He was pretty flawless here.

The huge interest in tennis generated by this match (and the one with Billie Jean King) seems to have died down. But for a little while it was difficult to find an available tennis court to play on.

Bobby said... Find a MA'AM for me to play at least 🤣 🤣 🤣

Booby Riggs looks so much like Steve Carell.

The lack of pace on their shots, even without today's rackets, was astounding. Looks like a top level high school player, male or female would destroy either one with today's game.

I think I could actually beat her :D

this is like 3 year old level today

Great to see this post, but what's with the editing? Very few points are shown start to finish. Even though Court's quality of play wasn't great, it would be fun to see this one - and the Riggs/King match - in their entirety.

He wasn’t even trying and he completely pumped Margaret on the wrong un

I'm just amazed how much the game sped up in the 1980's when the rackets improved. It looks like they are just barely trying watching this now in 2023. She hit some shots into the net that were open sitters. Those aluminum and wood frame rackets were just hard to use.

Riggs is pushing the ball and sneaking up to the net at the same time. He was in Court's head big time.

I love the thunk of the ball hitting those rackets.

Brent Musburger calling the shots in 1973! That guy goes back a long way.

O. J. Simpson: I have a twinge of premonition the knives will come out in that match.

Those rackets look like the old wooden ones somebody's parents would have laying around in the mid 80s that seemed like they had such a tiny surface and we were always told as kids they used actual cat guts to string them. Lol.

It's pretty amazing that mcenroe is the same age as Riggs is when he played this match . I don't think Riggs could get a single game from a 56 year old mcenroe

How could that old man older enough to be Court's father win?

Lol Bill Cosby sounded completely coked out 😂😂😂😂

It looks slow because old style movie cameras needed to be much further back than they are nowadays. (To give greater depth of field for the focusing). This compresses the perspective. Nowadays, modern digital movie cameras can be very close and still focus for both fast moving balls and areas that cover a large distance ranges. Go to any tennis game and watch from a close distance - it looks fast. Then watch the same game from just ten paces further back - it looks almost in slow motion.

Terrible job of editing, with points interrupted before they are completed.

This is the same year that Court won 3 out of 4 Slams and went out of Wimbledon at the Semi final stage. She was the BEST female player out there at that time..... Which speaks volumes! As for Riggs, he was a 'player' in more than one sense of the word.

why the hell does the picture keep blanking - if you can't edit the video then don't post it ffs

How nicely quiet the game was.

This was actually a huge upset - Court was a better player than BJK back then and should have been able to just flat out overpower Riggs. But Riggs was a much better player than she gave him credit for, he trained hard, scouted her and came up with a brilliant strategy to neutralize her power and play a junk ball game she'd never seen. Riggs really wanted to play BJK who was more willing to engage in banter that would hype the match, and he knew had to win this match. Court saw this as an exhibition and never took it or Riggs seriously.

Interesting to see how much the tennis sport has advanced since that time. Both look like playing in slow-motion hitting soft balls. One reason for sure is that the rackets, strings and balls of today allow a much more powerful and faster game. The sport has also become way more athletic. Both, Riggs and Court can't be described as "athletic" by today's standards. I've seen 11 years old girls playing a much more powerful and faster Tennis.

I was the ball boy for this match. Im in the back left side. Dick Braden got me this gig. I was 14 years old.

The standard here is nothing short of dreadful!

Riggs knew how to set up a sting to perfection: Rule #1 is that the mark cannot ever suspect they've been taken. This set-up blew out the odds of a Riggs loss against King, yet she still thinks that he didn't dump the match against her for a massive payout to this day.

holy shit i live by the court they played on

Women demands equal pay for... equal performance?

Tony Trabert says that he didn't think Bobby could handle the type of power Margaret has, but she had no power, just soft slices, because she was so nervous. She couldn't even slice the ball in play.

Riggs didn't play like that against King.

Actually Margaret won 12 of the last 20 matches she played against Billie Jean king. In 1973, the year of this footage she took 3 of 4 from King. I don’t think King was a better player than Margaret but she did have a better tennis mind in terms of strategy. This allowed her to fair better against Riggs.

Tennis is all about concentration and footwork. Look at the ball, move yourself, bend the knees and stay away from the lines. Especially in those days. Court couldn't handle the pressure. Rigg had no pressure, because he was nearly an old man. He knew, that he had nothing to loose. Court was in her prime time and was even taller and she had a really bad start. If you play against a pusher, don't forget to move the feet and fight for every point. She should have moved him around in the first games. But she didn't.

Just FYI: Some of the story and highlights of this match were nicely recreated in the TV movie "When Billie Beat Bobby," starring Holly Hunter as Billie Jean King, in which the Court vs Riggs match is the launching pad for the King vs Riggs match in Houston.

I never could play "junk ballers" very well, either. Generating your own pace can cause you hit a lot of balls long.

Makes you wonder how Bobby Riggs could have lost to Billie Jean King after having devastated Margaret Court. He did a great thing for woman’s tennis in those two matches.

1:02 Somebody must have did the old Switcharew on Bill and gave him is own sedative drugs. 😂🤣

They actually called this "tennis" back in the day. It's astonishing how slow both the ball and the players were moving. Just move forward to 1989 to watch Graf vs. Navratilova to appreciate how much more athleticism came into play, and how much faster the ball got moving. I'm old enough to remember this Riggs vs. Court match, as I surely do, but looking back on it now I'm utterly perplexed how Margaret Court could have dominated the women's circuit... including over Billie Jean King. I mean, she's as slow as all get out and her shots are quite lame. Thank you, Martina, for changing the course of women's tennis!

When the commentator says he thinks Riggs is just toying with Court he was saying what most normal people would be thinking 'no kidding'. When Riggs played Billy Jean Kind and threw the match and she claimed a 'great victory' I wonder how many people especially the men thought..of course it ...of course it was.

What's this with cutting out in the middle of points? Anyway. Margaret is really flustered, but Bobby has a lot to do with that. The ball is floating to the baseline and hanging there with absolutely no pace for Margaret to hit. Or, it's low and slow and makes you run, sort of like a semi-drop shot. I've played against that kind of player, and it's not easy until you learn to just have confidence in your shot and take your game to them. Margaret never did that, and seeing her tighten up is painful. Riggs didn't play the same game against BJK. He gave BJK some pace to hit with, which made it MUCH easier for her, and his volleys during the BJK match were atrocious -- like unhurried volleys 5 feet from the net buried into the bottom of the net bad. Riggs was known as a superb volleyer, had a great, accurate overhead, and the best lob in the men's game. He was also perfectly capable of hitting the ball hard when he wanted to. So, where did all that go during the BJK match? The more I see the two matches side by side, I more I believe that he threw the second match.

One thing I immediately notice is that Riggs for 55 was in very good shape. It doesn't look like he had any excess pounds on him at all.

Did Guy Ritchie edit this?

wow , wow , Mr Riggs has had such smooth ground stroke , very effortless strokes .....look at that second slice serve accuracy ....very very smart player.

He really looks like Artie Johnson.

Laughable that Riggs completely dominated like this against the number one women's player in the world and then claimed that he didn't throw the match against Billie Jean King and that she beat him fair and square.... because he didn't train; FOUR MONTHS later!

I believe he originally asked Billie Jean King, she told him to get lost or something to that affect, when he beat Margaret Court, Billie Jean knew she had to play him, which she did and beat him in straight sets.😊

The play looks so sedate compared to now. I might even be able to match their play for a couple of games.

couple of quick comments -- first, everything looks slower on tv vs. in person, second, Riggs played a junk ball game, something Court had probably never seen. Like another poster said, it was like throwing changeups to a lineup of fastball hitters, and watching them get frustrated and strike out a lot.

where is the whole match ?

Now there is the Barona Casino. Damm cheek going through those high hilly roads. How sad. Did Mighty Maggie not realize there was a net to Target her volleys? What a Massacre.

I know the equipment is better now but still the slow pace of this was just unbearable. I don't know why Tony Trabert said before the match that Margaret hits the ball hard. Regardless of the old racquets she didn't have a topspin backhand so every backhand was just a backspin floater. Bobby's second serve looked like it was about 40 mph and Margaret still couldn't hit winners off of it. This was pretty brutal.

what is wrong with the editing??

Damn...I wish I could go back in time and play Professional Womens Tennis...I would have been UNBEATABLE ! (..and I'm only a 4.5 USTA player)

they really make sure to edit in the points being called out but not being played. :(

Really interesting match. Riggs wasn't a joke. He had incredible touch and a great net game. The women's pro players didn't have any answer for it. While this was a spectacle, I think it did a lot to promote women's tennis.

10:19 what the hell he could hit a drop volley with those racquets ?

i once read in a book but can't think of the book now that trabert and others hit with margaret leading up to this match and said she was hitting great and in great form... and that they were surprised and stunned and completely taken by surprise that riggs would hack and slowball her to death, tactics that hadn't seen or thought of? and that in hindsight this hitting and sparring was the WORST preparation for her against riggs!.... REALLY? riggs was NEVER KNOWN to be a hard hitter, aggressive, serve and volleyer or whatever even in his prime...did they actually think that riggs would try to outhit her? come on! i find this excuse to be quite frankly unbelievable..

That's was the best I ever heard by the time Sunday comes he will be four years older....hah hah

Not a huge fan of Court but it's sad to see her just kind of fall apart mentally.

Then he pulled the best work of all time to pay off his debts by "losing" to King. It astounds me to this day that people still believe he didn't throw that match

You can't watch this and not realize that Riggs DID throw the match against King later, obviously for gambling reasons...

I'm surprised that Brent Musburger didn't mention anything about Bobby Riggs possibly shaving points...

maybe it's just me but i sense a huge sexism from the old players like segura, budge, etcetera... in fact, they seem to REEK of it the way they acted, their too big smiles, their comments, and so on.... they were almost "boyish and childish" in glee to see their old boy riggs trouncing a woman any woman......perhaps it was just that era and way of thinking?.....

@ 3:28 wouldn't fly in 2018

Even suggesting she would have beaten William's is laughable.

Is that ball girl Eve Plumb ("Marsha") @ 4:28?

Honestly, what did people expect 😂

Looks like slow motion tennis. LOL, this wouldn't cut it in the juniors today!

Where is the Riggs vs. King match?

When going to grade school I learned about the Billie Jean King match with Riggs, but they never mentioned this match! lol Now I know why! lol

Hard to believe at the time of this match, Margaret was the top-ranked #1 women's player in the world. Seemingly paralyzed with fear and nerves, Margaret uncharacteristically made mistakes and quickly succumbed to Bobby in only 40 minutes. Margaret let the occasion get to her and forgot to play her game. A few hours after this match, Billie Jean King says "Yes" in challenging Bobby to another rematch in what would become widely known as the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in Houston later that year.

Amazing that this match has alot of footage. But the match with Billie Jean is nowhere to be found, why? Rumors are that Riggs threw the match which makes sense since he beat the no.1 player so easy, but then does horrible against the no. 4? Makes no sense. I wanted to compare his play here to the Billie Jean match to see if it looked like he threw the match. I searched everywhere but can not find the complete match

She almost looks like she was sick...did she have a fever?

She was 30 at that time and he was 55. And her total Grand Slams wins are 24, which is highest till now. And how bad was she playing here! And they want equal pay

To me it looks like she couldn't even execute the simplest bread and butter slice backhands. She missed them over and over again in the bottom of the neat. Billie Jean King didn't play anything like that against him. She would have been better off just rushing up to the net, but I don't think she was clear headed enough to even think of doing that. What a disaster!

Margaret was thinking about Her secret lover Virginia Wade and lost here concentration. One would of thought she was some sort of club player had they not known her record.

At times the video editing looked like Benny Hill's Cheapo films presents ... Ok, it was just a silly joke.

LADIES, are you WATCHING THIS? LOL