(June 27, 2013) -- Forty years after the fact, the effects of 1973's Battle of the Sexes can be seen every time
Serena Williams flexes a muscle,
Maria Sharapova earns another million in endorsements or
Kimiko Date-Krumm defies Father Time.
That much and more is covered in a new documentary by the same name that premiered in London on Wednesday night.
Directed by Zara Hayes, the film combines recent interviews with
Billie Jean King and several current and former players, along with rare archived footage of the match itself, held at Houston's Astrodome.
King squared off against former Wimbledon champion
Bobby Riggs, a self-proclaimed "male chauvinist pig" who had boldly proclaimed that even at age 55 he could beat any female player in the world because of his male superiority.
"It became a symbol of something much bigger," Hayes told British website Female First. "So with this film we tried to tell the story of this match and how big it became but we also wanted to show why it mattered on a bigger scale to women."
What few remember is that King initially declined Riggs' challenge, only agreeing to it after he first played 30-year-old Margaret Court and defeated her 6-2, 6-1 by using lobs and drop shots to throw off her game.
King was more than up to the challenge, defeating Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to win $100,000. But, as the documentary focuses on, the victories King earned for the legitimacy of women in sports cannot be given a dollar amount.
An estimated TV audience of 100 million watched the match around the world. That record for viewership of a tennis match stood until 2011, when 116 million Chinese viewers tuned in to watch Li Na win the French Open.
The documentary ends with King defeating Riggs, but also focuses on the formation of the Virginia Slims Circuit, which became the Women's Tennis Association, and the "Original 9" - the players who demanded more equal pay to their male equivalents. King was the leader of this group.
Long after the 1973 showdown, a third installment of the Battle of the Sexes featured
Jimmy Connors taking on
Martina Navratilova in 1992, a contest that Connors claimed 7-5, 6-2. And what about this generation? Well,
Andy Murray has already said in his
BBC Sport column that he would enjoy the chance to go up against
Serena Williams.
“The Battle of the Sexes” documentary tells the story surrounding a match that paved the way for equal pay in women’s tennis and brought on an era of fiercely competitive and exciting women’s tennis, creating a turning point for women’s sports.