Days before Wimbledon, the trailer for a tennis film came out: Battle of the Sexes. It is based on a true story, one you may already know. In 1973, 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, a former world No 1, took on Billie Jean King, who was 29 and the dominant female player of the time. Much of the contest was razzle-dazzle spectacle: Riggs entered the court in a rickshaw pulled by models; a coterie of topless men carried King on a gold throne. But the $100,000 match itself, watched by 30,000 in the Houston Astrodome stadium and 90 million on television, was a serious business – something shown by the fact that it is still being talked about 44 years later.

The film, to be released in October, looks great fun. Oscar-winner Emma Stone plays King, and Steve Carell seems a perfect fit for the hammy chauvinist Riggs. Like Austin Powers or Anchorman, Battle of the Sexes will be a snapshot of how far attitudes have changed. Riggs’s assertion that women belong in “the bedroom and the kitchen” will probably get a good laugh now. In 1973, King was fighting in part for women to receive equal pay to men in grand-slam tournaments. That has existed now across those four events for a decade.