A biography for Bobby Riggshasn’t been written yet.
“I once played amateur tournament tennis six months without double-faulting.”
“I'll never play for more than I can afford to lose.”
“The bigger the bet, the better I played.”
“I'm a woman specialist now. I'm going around the world to challenge all the woman champions. England, France, Czechoslovakia, everywhere.”
“I said a lot of things about which I was wrong. Now I have to sit back and take what's coming, and I will. I still like women in the bedrooms and kitchens in that order, but some of them can do other things.”
“The second-worst thing in the world is betting on a golf game and losing. The worst is not betting at all.”
“My philosophy is to make an offer that the other guy can't refuse, because he thinks there's no way he can't win.”
“The best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot.”
“Senior tennis is like the younger game in slow motion. It is much more of a backcourt game. The player who had a big game in his prime finds it harder to play that same game as a senior. But any senior who could lob well when he was young can still hit a good lob.”
“I don't want to be the guy who sits on a front porch with a mint julep in his hand and rocks his life away.”
“It's no disgrace to play against the world's champions and lose by one service break in the last two sets.”
“I know beating a woman isn't like winning seven gold medals. But how many old guys are there in the world? You think they can relate to Mark Spitz? They relate to me, Bobby Riggs.”
“An old ham like me needs to be on stage.”
“If I am to be a chauvinist pig, I want to be the number one pig.”
“To be a winner, you've got to be an appraiser. You've got to be able to play at your best under pressure. And more money creates more pressure. Money is the finest fuel in the world.”
“My biggest problem is overconfidence.”
“The proudest thing I have ever done was to win the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at Wimbledon.”
“I consider myself just a lovable old man who just loves women. I've reversed 100 percent.”
“No woman ever lived who could compete with a man on an equal basis - even a 55-year-old man. There's a lot of talk about Women's Lib. They feel they're worth as much as the guys, but they can't play a lick if they can't beat a 55-year-old guy.”