Could Wimbledon ever be rigged? Mr Riggs would know.Byline: Dan O'Neill FIXED tennis matches? Well that's what they're saying. But of course, it could NEVER happen here. No? Well let us remember Wimbledon 1939 and meet Mr Bobby Riggs, a brash 21-year-old from California, among the pre-tournament favourites to take the men's singles title. But Bouncing Bobby looked to have blown any chance of the big one when he faced Germany's Baron Gottfried Von Cramm Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (July 7, 1909 – November 8, 1976) was a German amateur tennis champion. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Gottfried von Cramm in his list in the semi-final of the London grass court championships at Queen's Club on the Friday before Wimbledon. He lost 6-0, 6-1 to the three-time Wimbledon (losing) finalist, and promptly placed a very large bet on a Mr B Riggs to win at Wimbledon. The bookie checked the Queen's result and congratulated himself on finding such a sucker. The smile vanished when Bobby beat Elwood Cooke in the final, then went on to win the men's doubles (with Cooke) and the mixed doubles with Alice Marble. Bobby went on to run a professional tennis "circus", but is best remembered as the man who said in 1973 that women tennis players didn't deserve their pay, then boasted that even at 56 he was too good for any top woman. He beat Margaret Court, the 1970 champ. Then the mighty Billie Jean King Noun 1. Billie Jean King - United States woman tennis player (born in 1943) Billie Jean Moffitt King, King , that year's champion, accepted his challenge. More than 30,000, mostly cheering feminists, watched Billie Jean hammer "the chauvinist chau·vin·ism n. 1. Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism. 2. Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind: "the chauvinism . . . pig" 6-4, 6-4 in the Houston Astrodome as·tro·dome n. A transparent dome on the top of an aircraft, through which celestial observations are made for navigation. Noun 1. along with 50 million TV viewers. Wonder if Bobby threw that one as well. |
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