I have a book by Rod Laver or at least used to as I have not seen it in years.
He just flat out stated that Riggs purposely threw the match.
The Mob made him a offer he couldn’t refuse.
Regardless, Riggs was middle-aged and many years beyond his prime. It was meaningless as far as any comparison of a top woman vs. top man in their primes.
It’s certainly common knowledge that few if any of the women could compete with the top 100-200 men on the tour.
>>He just flat out stated that Riggs purposely threw the match.
I don’t think anyone who seriously looked at this thought otherwise.
I was, at one time, a 3.5 to 4 player on my best day. A buddy of mine played in college and he just toyed with me when we played. I played a tournament against this girl who played in college — DII or a smaller D1, I don’t recall. She beat me but had an awful hard time doing so. She couldn’t return my first serve and I had no problem returning her’s. But her ground strokes and volley game was too much for me. Had I been able to hit what I wanted where I wanted I would have beaten her easily. My power would have been too much.