Filed Under » tennis

"I don't move around too well anymore," said King, now 68. "But I was happy with how I played today and I definitely showed I'm better than that rotten bag of bones over there," she added, gesturing across the net to the skeleton of Riggs, who died in 1995 at age 77.

King and Riggs first met on the court a year after Title IX was passed. After challenging, and defeating, Margaret Court in May of 1973, the 55 year-old Riggs then took on the 29 year-old King. The female tennis star won 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

"I felt like I got off to a better start today than I did back in 1973," said King. "That first set almost 40 years ago was close. But today he only returned one ball on me and that was because I hit a forehead directly off of his skull and bounced back over the net."

"It was a bit of a surprise, but also not unexpected," said Tim Henman, a retired English tennis player. "We gave it our best shot, but we're simply not good at sport. It would be foolish and a waste of time and resources to keep trying to succeed in athletics."

The Cameron-Queen Elizabeth II statement said that England will uphold its commitment to host this year's Wimbledon tournament as well as the Summer Olympics in July and August.

"We carry through on our promises," it read. "However, we want to make a new promise: no English athlete will compete in Wimbledon or the Olympics or in football or cricket or golf or any sport ever again. Because we wish to put an end to the heartbreak and humiliation that sport brings to English people. That is our promise to you."