For Such a Time as This Court

On September 20, 1973, twenty-nine-year-old Billie Jean King walked into the Houston Astrodome to face fifty-five-year-old Bobby Riggs before 30,472 spectators and an estimated 90 million television viewers worldwide. What many forget is that King almost never played that match. When Riggs first issued his challenge, she declined. It was Margaret Court who accepted — and lost badly on May 13, 1973, in what the press dubbed the "Mother's Day Massacre."…