At least eight other exhibition matches have been played between notable male and female tennis players starting in 1888, though only some of them were referred to at the time as a "battle of the sexes".

[9] Riggs first challenged Billie Jean King, but when she declined, Margaret Court stepped in, accepting the guarantee of $20,000 for the match, more than she had earned for winning both the 1973 Australian and French Open women's singles titles.

[7][1] Televised by CBS Sports,[12] Riggs descended the stadium steps and presented Court with Mother's Day flowers, which she accepted while curtsying.

[14] Suddenly in the national limelight following his win over Court, Riggs taunted all female tennis players, prompting King to accept a lucrative financial offer to play Riggs in a nationally televised match in prime time on ABC that the promoters dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes".

[22] Riggs presented King with a giant Sugar Daddy lollipop, and she responded by giving him a squealing piglet,[23][24] symbolic of male chauvinism.

At this point, King realized that she "had to win" given the importance of the match,[27] and broke right back in again in the tenth game to close out the set.

After quickly failing from the baseline, where he had intended to play, Riggs dropped his comedic affect and showed a more serious demeanor, as he was forced to change to a serve-and-volley game, but he was no match for King.

"[29] Another observer was impressed by King's brilliant play and smart tactics: "She both first-served aggressively and attacked Riggs' own softball deliveries with authority.

She rushed to the net and commanded the territory by whipping stunning volleys off her backhand and by taking Riggs' infamous moon-shot lobs out of the Dome lights and rifling overheads right back past him.

[32] The broadcasters on the ABC telecast were Howard Cosell, Rosemary Casals and Gene Scott who replaced Kramer the night prior to the event.

"[29] Casals explained why she got the ABC assignment, "I was asked to do the color because I had been so negatively outspoken about Bobby Riggs and they wanted someone to go up against Jack Kramer, who was against women’s tennis.

[34] According to Natta, one Hal Shaw was in the pro shop at the Palma Ceia Golf Club in Tampa when two known mobsters entered and proceeded to discuss a proposal from Riggs to win against Margaret Court, but deliberately lose to King, in settlement of a $100,000 gambling debt.

[40] King was part of the Original 9 players who formed the Virginia Slims Series, created because the women wanted to end inequality of pay between male and female victors.

[40] A few months after their match, King and Riggs were guest stars in "The Pig Who Came to Dinner" episode of The Odd Couple, which originally aired on November 16, 1973.

The 2017 film Battle of the Sexes, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is about the King/Riggs match, and stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell as King and Riggs, respectively.

[43] Outdoors at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada, it matched 40-year-old Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova, age 35.

[51] Under the same rules Dod also played Scottish champion Harry Grove, winning 1–6, 6–0, 6–4, and William Renshaw, whom she defeated in two sets, 6–2, 6–4.

Edward Chandler had won the NCAA men's singles title in 1925 and 1926, played Davis Cup, and was ranked as high as No.

[citation needed] Kemp was a tennis player of significant accomplishment, including making 9 Davis Cup appearances for Ireland from 1946 to 1952, and winning the Men's Singles Open Irish championships in 1950.

In 1975, Ion Tiriac defeated Abigail Maynard 6–0, 6–0 in their round one match at the then coed men's pro circuit (later renamed ATP Tour) of USTA's Fairfield County International Tennis Championship.

It involved male and female athletes from various sports, such as Laura Baugh and Jane Blalock vs. Hale Irwin and Doug Sanders in golf, and Jerry West vs. Karen Logan in basketball.

The tennis event pitted future Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade vs. Björn Borg, and Ilie Nastase vs. Evonne Goolagong.

Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple of bottles of ice cold lager".

He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game "fun"[67] and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much more easily and put spin on the ball that female players could not handle.

[64] In December 2003, 43-year-old Yannick Noah and 21-year-old Justine Henin played a friendly match at the Forest National in Brussels.

Djokovic clowned to the amusement of the crowd, visibly holding back in an effort to keep the match competitive and at one point swapped places with a ballboy.

[72] In July 2021, a single tiebreak game was played between Polish number ones Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Świątek.

The final of the women's draw was initially planned to be between Donna Vekić and the winner of Mirra Andreeva and Varvara Gracheva,[75] but Vekic pulled out due to an injury.

Ukrainian player Marta Kostyuk initially agreed to replace her, but she later changed her mind because of backlash in her home country against her playing Andreeva, who is Russian.

[77][78][79] Ghazouani had lost to Arthur Rinderknech in a men's match two days before[80] and was initially scheduled to be Andreeva's practice hitting partner before the women's final he ended up playing in.