September 20, 1973: Two tennis greats meet in the Houston Astrodome in Texas. Robert Larimore Riggs was born in 1918 and took up the game when he was eleven. He became a tennis star in the 1930s and 40s and became ranked World No. 1 as an amateur in 1941. That same year he played his first professional game on December 26. He went on to be the World No. 1 professional player in 1946 and again in 1947. He was a hustler and a gambler. He parlayed a $500 stake into $105,000 in 1939 by betting on himself to win all his games at Wimbledon (betting was legal in England). That would be over $1.5 million in 2009 USD.

Billie Jean Moffitt was born in 1943. She began playing tennis on the public courts of her home town. She made her Grand Slam debut in 1959 at the age…