Tennis Special Report: The playing style of former tennis player Robert Larimore Bobby Riggs
Born on February 25, 1918, Robert Larimore Bobby Riggs was a former world number one tennis player. As an amateur player, Riggs also enjoyed the top spot for quite a period of time. He contested in his very first professional tennis game back in 1941, during the month of December.
Later on, Bobby Riggs turned out to be one of the top class tennis players at a very young age. His popularity was affected badly when he was knocked down by Billie Jeans King, who was one of the most recognized female tennis players from the women’s side at that time, in a famous match where he participated in order to prove that men were superior players, commonly known as the battle of the sexes.
Jack Kramer in his autobiography back in 1979, said about Riggs that he was, "the most underestimated of all the high quality players" and added, perhaps amazingly, that he rates Riggs as one of the six greatest tennis players of all times. He praised the game as well as the talent of Riggs to the extent that he ranked him higher than Pancho Gonzales, when playing at his very best.
As far as the playing style of Bobby is concerned, he was definitely way behind his top level contenders like Kramer, as well as Don Budge, in terms of power however, his intelligence used to help him a great deal in compensating for his strength weakness. Moreover, his control over the ball as well as speed was remarkable.
Bobby Riggs was also famous as an excellent strategy maker who used to score points even with the match’s best drop shot, where as side by side used to knock down the ground strokes. Kramer, who was one of the few former tennis contenders who was surely better than Riggs, stated that there is a serious "delusion" about Riggs. "He didn't play like an average tennis player instead he used to hit his second serve almost as well as his first one. Moreover, as far as accuracy and depth are concerned, it was no less than some of the other top level players of that time such as Gonzales as well as Von Cramm’s”.
Riggs in his personal autobiography, also stated that, “Back in 1946, while contesting in one of my matches for the US pro tournament, I dominated the net at almost every single point as I kept on attacking the opponent with the help of my strongest weapon, a strong first serve that played a big part in my 6–3, 6–1, 6–1 win in the end."
Riggs, while commenting on Kramer, "undoubtedly was a true champion. He knocked down Segura. He got the better of Budge at the time when Don was just a bit past his top spotting.”
Kramer on the other hand further stated that Riggs was a kind of player from the men’s side of professional tennis, who was capable of controlling the ball in the way he wished. Moreover, he was able to tackle the stronger and more talented opponents pretty well on the courts of tennis. His style of the game was such that he used to shock you at such important points of the match that led you to bow down before him. Such was his style of play, that his chips and drop shots were simply outstanding.
Moreover, Riggs was also phenomenal with a volley from both sides. He was a highly deceptive and dangerous player of his own kind. He was capable of smashing winning overheads. Due to his accuracy, he used to hit the target with great amount of perfection.
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