Rod Laver in his book just flat out said that Riggs threw the match with King. It certainly makes sense that it was a setup.
Riggs first challenged Number 1 seed Margaret Court to play and he beat her very handily. I would say easily. Embarrassingly easy.
The is no way Billy Jean King would have played him after that match unless she knew she would win. Since Riggs destroyed the player rated better than King then all the money would be on Riggs.
As I said, Laver just flat out said Riggs threw the second match.
I worked in a legitimate business Carlos Marcello owned in New Orleans back then. I overheard several of the big bosses talk about this “event” back when it happened. Riggs had two choices, turn into a Federal snitch, (Marcello was under a lot of scrutiny then from everywhere, including the DOJ for possible JFK connections), or play tennis. Guess he made the only choice he could.
I watched both matches. It looked like Riggs was patting the ball over the net to King basically giving her easy putaways. After reading about Riggs betting history, it, the idea he threw the match, made a lot of sense.
“Riggs first challenged Number 1 seed Margaret Court to play and he beat her very handily. I would say easily. Embarrassingly easy.”
Maybe Court threw that match, too.
If the match was fixed i don’t think King was in on it. If Riggs threw the match why would she have to be?