The Battle Of The Sexes Review

• 18th Jun 2013

The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships are almost upon us once again so how timely that the documentary, The Battle of the Sexes about one of the more colourful episodes in the story of tennis since the game went professional in 1968 should be released. It clearly shows how tennis at the time was at the centre of the political zeitgeist. The documentary opens explosively with the 60s and early 70s with the birth of the modern feminist movement with the burning of the bra (probably not advisable to a woman tennis player) and an equally exciting potted history of the feminist revolution at this time which, the documentary reassures ran concurrently with the Civil Rights movement. At the same time in 1968 tennis moved from the amateur game to the professional one with big money starting to become a part of the game we have today. With this came some strong characters and the inevitable clash between the old order and the new.

During this period Billie-Jean King was at the top of her game and was becoming stronger and more influential on the game while the likes of Margaret Court, Chris Evert and Virginia Wade were also at the top. Meanwhile, Bobby Riggs was a 55-year-old former Wimbledon champion who had long since disappeared into obscurity but would soon make a name for himself as a self-confessed male chauvinist pig who wanted to challenge the top women players to an exhibition match to prove his point. At first Billie-Jean King wasn’t prepared to pander to his prejudice towards women and declined but top ranked player Court did take up the challenge but was soon soundly defeated on the day 6-2, 6-1 leading to a gloating Riggs to prove his point. This was red rag to a bull for Mrs. King who took up Riggs’s challenge.

The documentary is supported by other contemporary women players, feminists and broadcasters, as well as contemporary views which demonstrate how utterly sexist this period was and the challenge that women’s tennis and women in the western world faced. What is apparent through this film is that the charismatic characters of yesteryear are no longer around while today most players are robotic and machine-like (another documentary coming soon follows a year in the life of Andy Murray and the director has admitted to struggling to produce any material). The film also exposed how Billie-Jean, alongside other players challenged the old order and were threatened by the patriarchs and faced a ban from Wimbledon and the other Grand Slams if they created their own tour resulting in a division in the women’s tour. It highlights how tennis was very much at the centre of the women’s struggle. What is surprising and quite evident though is the absence of Martina Navratliova who, although from a later period epitomised that struggle to the next generation as she was to represent the ‘golden age’ in the women’s game. She also moved the game up the next level (while also playing an exhibition match with another men’s player, Vitas Gerulaitis). The end titles to the documentary tell us that since 2007 the Wimbledon and French Open championships have equalized prize money between men and women, although this argument still doesn’t go away as the men’s tour are still arguing that they are the bigger draw, the men’s game is still more open to lower seeded players and that for the Grand Slam tournaments they must play the best of five sets. No doubt that this new documentary will once again raise the debate at this year’s Wimbledon.

Chris Hick