Actually, Riggs had destroyed the #1 female player , 6-2/6-1.
That is what drove King to take up his challenge. King forced the 55-year-old Riggs to run all over the court, and wore him out.
Contrary to what some have said here, he was not playing the doubles court. That was a match in the 90s between Jimmy Conner and Martina Navratolova.
“King forced the 55-year-old Riggs to run all over the court, and wore him out.”
A strategy that wouldn’t have worked for Billie Jean if Riggs was getting his 1st serve in with a reasonable percentage. The easiest way to ‘make it look good’ is to just flub your first serve cuz you know that Billie Jean’s game is to run you side to side and come to the net to finish you. It’s like if a fighter just stops throwing jabs. No jabs, you can’t control the fight.