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Jan/21

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Connors vs Navratilova Battle of Sexes 1992

A forgotten tennis classic duel which nobody ever talks about today was the 1992 Flex-All Battle of the Champions clash between Martina Navratilova and Jimmy Connors at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On a court constructed outdoors at the famous casino which hosted many famous championship boxing matches like Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney and Larry Holmes vs Muhammad Ali and Thomas Hearns vs Marvin Hagler, Connors defeated Navratilova 75 62 before a jam-packed stadium.

Connors was 40 years old at the time of the match, a fading but still active figure in the ATP. Navratilova was 35 and still a WTA force.

The court was specially painted to give Navratilova half the alley on each side. Connors was only allowed one serve for each point.

Navratilova double faulted on set point and almost smashed her racquet with a vicious swipe, showing her intense frustration.

Connors was lase beam focused the entire match – he later revealed in his biography that he bet a million dollars on himself in the match.

Connors victory is never talked about today, no movies or books have been created based on it. All of the talk about tennis “Battle of the Sexes” is about the Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs showdown at the Houston Astrodome.

Here is the highlights video

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5 comments

  • Doug Day · January 30, 2021 at 8:08 am

    Nice get you sexist pig! This went down the woketalitarian memory hole ages ago. Here’s an Emmy for guerrilla-jorno platforming. While no lives were lost posting this the WTA regime just escaped being murdered.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 30, 2021 at 8:22 am

    Doug, it’s funny how the match gets 1/1,000,000th of the talk that Riggs King gets. They erased it down the memory hole of history they don’t want people to remember. If Navratilova would have won three movies and nine books would have been made about the match. Martina should have demanded a rematch )

  • Winston Smith · February 1, 2021 at 10:29 pm

    I remember reading that a component of Jimmy’s bet (or perhaps a side bet) was that he had to lose less than 8 games total. It got tight on the 8 games. Jimmy really grinded!

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 2, 2021 at 8:02 am

    Winston, in the highlights in the video, Jimmy was full out intense with game face on every single point. So too was Martina. It was a serious real match and the full house crowd loved it. Credit for Martina for daring to do it with the advantages (equality?) she received, losing in the end had to be bitterly painful. Tennis needs more of these. But with Serena declining to face McEnroe, it looks unlikely a Battle of Sexes will ever happen again.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 2, 2021 at 8:02 am

    Do you know if Martina was in on any betting action?

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