Athletes - Billie Jean King

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	Athletes - Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King (born November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California) is a retired tennis player from the United States. During her career, she won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She is generally considered to be one of the greatest tennis players and female athletes in history. King has been an outspoken advocate against sexism in sports and society. The tennis match for which she is best remembered by the public is the "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973, in which she defeated the former Wimbledon men's champion Bobby Riggs.

Biography

King was born Billie Jean Moffitt. She was the daughter of a firefighter father and homemaker mother. Her younger brother Randy Moffitt pitched 13 years in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays. She learned to play tennis on the public courts of Long Beach, California, and first gained international recognition in 1961 when, aged 17, she won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in her first attempt (partnering Karen Hantze Susman). At Wimbledon in 1962, King toppled the number one player in the world and top seed, Margaret Court, in a stunning first round match.

In 1965, Billie Jean married law student Lawrence King.

In 1966, King won the first of her six singles titles at Wimbledon. She followed up by winning the singles titles at both Wimbledon and the US Championships in 1967. She developed a reputation as an aggressive, hard-hitting net-rusher, with excellent speed and a highly competitive personality. King once said, "Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever."

King was a significant force in the opening of tennis to professionalism. Before the start of the Open era in 1968, she earned US$100 a week as a playground instructor and student at Los Angeles State College in between playing at major tennis tournaments. In 1967, she criticized the United States Lawn Tennis Association in a series of press conferences, denouncing what she called the association's practice of "shamateurism," where top players were paid under the table to guarantee their entry into tournaments. King argued that this was corrupt and kept the game highly elitist. When the open era began, King campaigned for equal prize money in the men's and women's games. As the financial backing of the women's game improved, King became the first woman athlete to earn over US$100,000 in prize money in 1971. But inequalities continued. In 1972, King won the US Open but received US$15,000 less than the men's champion Ilie Nastase. She stated that if the prize money was not equal by the following year, she would not play. In 1973, the US Open became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money for men and women.

Despite King's achievements at the world's biggest tennis tournaments, she is best remembered by the public for her win over a 55-year-old man in 1973. Bobby Riggs had been a top men's player in the 1930s and 1940s in both the amateur and professional ranks. He then went on to become a well-known tennis hustler who made a living promoting himself and playing in challenge matches. In 1973, he took on the role of male chauvinist and, claiming that the women's game was so inferior to the men's game even a 55-year-old like him could beat the current top female players, he challenged Margaret Court to a match and beat her 6-2, 6-1. King, who previously had rejected challenges from Riggs, then accepted a lucrative financial offer to play him at the Houston Astrodome in Texas on September 20, 1973, in an event dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes." The match garnered huge publicity. In front of 30,492 spectators and a worldwide television audience estimated at 50 million people in 37 countries, King beat Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. The match is considered a very significant event in developing greater recognition and respect for women's tennis. King said, "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match. It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self-esteem."

King was instrumental in establishing the women's tennis tour in the 1970s, and worked tirelessly to promote it. She became the first president of the women's players union – the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) – in 1973. In 1974, she founded "Womensports" magazine and started the Women's Sports Foundation. She also helped to found World Team Tennis.

King's triumph at the French Open in 1972 made her only the fifth woman in tennis history to win the singles titles at all four Grand Slam events, a "career Grand Slam." She also won a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. In women's doubles, only the Australian Open eluded her. She won a record 20 career titles at Wimbledon – 6 singles, 10 women's doubles, and 4 mixed doubles. (Martina Navratilova also has 20 career titles at Wimbledon).

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