Billie Jean King marks 40-year dream

BILLIE JEAN KING has always been somebody with dreams and the setting could not have been more idyllic for the pathfinder who changed the course of women's tennis history.

Billie Jean King

BILLIE JEAN KING has always been somebody with dreams and the setting could not have been more idyllic for the pathfinder who changed the course of women's tennis history.

As if to add further illumination to the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Women's Tennis Association's formation, the sun was shining down on Wimbledon and the All England Club sat under a clear blue sky.

Importantly for King, female players from 44 nations contested this year's ladies' singles and doubles competitions; their ages ranging from a Croatian, Donna Vekic, 16 when the tournament began, to Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm, 42. In the doubles, Israelis were partnering Chinese while Hungarians playing alongside Colombians. And all, dependent of course on their success, would be paid the same as their male counterparts.

This was King's vision 40 years ago when she led the campaign to get women on an equal footing with men in the tennis world by forming their own players' association and starting their tour. Until it was accomplished she was not prepared to rest. No wonder the widest of smiles spread below those distinctive spectacles. Word perfect, she recounts what she said to the players packed into a London meeting room all those years ago, words that still resonate today.

"This will make it better for us but it's really for the future generations," she said. "If you expect any applause, if you expect to make tons of money, if you expect to be eternally recognised for this, then stop now. If we expect any one of these things we shouldn't do it. But if you want to for the future generations, we will make a big difference. We will make history."

King glances across to Centre Court, where, mentally exhausted from hours and hours of meetings and negotiations in the build-up to the 1973 Championships, she managed to summon sufficient strength and adrenaline to win her fifth Wimbledon singles title. Just for good measure, she and her "partner in crime" Rosie Casals added the doubles prize. Then her gaze shifts to the capital's skyline. Somewhere in the distance is the Gloucester Hotel, where the orders were clear: nobody leaves this room until we get ourselves an association.

"And basically what we came up with was something that said: Any girl, born anywhere in the world, if she was good enough, there would be a place for her to make a living and be recognised," maintained King, insisting there was never any intention for the WTA to be anything other than a global body.

She has been honoured in many ways. She had the site of the US Open at Flushing Meadows named after her. She was inducted in the sport's International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama four years ago and won the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year lifetime achievement award.

Ask her what she sees as her greatest legacy and it will be that on Saturday the Wimbledon ladies' champion will receive a cheque for $A2.6m, which mirrors that of her male counterpart. However, King is insistent: "It's not about the money. It's about the equality message." Equal prize money wasn't always the case; after tennis went Open in 1968 the men's champion, Rod Laver, left with $A3300 while King's title earned her $A1200. In 1973 her financial reward for winning again was $A5000, compared with the $A8300 banked by Jan Kodes.

"It was a long road but we got there in the end. Would it all have happened without those meetings in the Gloucester?" asked King, with a distinct tone of pride in her voice. "I guess that's something we will never know but I know every person that I made sure was kept locked in that room until we made a decision remains delighted with what we eventually achieved. We now have a level of equality that the pioneers dreamt about."

King is sitting with Ingrid Lofdahl Bentzer, then the first secretary of the WTA and now chairman and chief executive officer of the Women's International Squash Players Association and a prospective board member of the International Tennis Federation. They laugh when recalling that the diminutive Casals was instructed to take a tape recorder into the Gloucester meetings, which then didn't work, and that the taller and more substantial Betty Stove was in charge of guarding the doors - not to ensure anyone uninvited didn't get in but so that potentially bored players inside didn't escape.

"Billie was the driving force, the unquestionable leader, and the rest of us all knew we had to join together," Bentzer said. "Previously there had been two separate tours with her along with Rosie and Francoise Durr playing on the Virginia Slims circuit with Evonne [Goolagong], Virginia [Wade], Margaret Court and Chrissie [Evert], who was only 16. Martina [Navratilova] and Olga Morozova were in Communist countries and they had it tough.

"We were very careful in not mentioning the meetings to the agents and there were no coaches or parents. Just us, the players. It was supposed to be absolutely top secret but somehow the press got wind of what was happening. They [wrongly] thought we were about to stage a boycott. What rubbish, we were just forming an association so women could stand up for their own rights."

The move came after the passing of the federal amendment Title IX in the United States, which said that any American school or university that received federal funds had to use them equally for men and women. King maintained it was the most important part of legislation toward sexual equality in her country since women had been given the vote.

"It was a tumultuous time in the early 70s and we wanted to do something in the light of that legislation," King recollected. "The men had just formed their Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] but they didn't want us. I tried to persuade Arthur Ashe that we should all be together and it would be unbelievable because tennis was the only sport with top men and women. But they didn't give a flying whatever. It was all about them and their money and their egos."

She made two attempts to amalgamate with the ATP but in vain. To this day she refuses to name the male player who told her people wouldn't walk across the street to see women play tennis, even if it cost only 10 cents. She grimaced: "I would never say that to anyone. Boy or girl. It's just not right."

King's vision is now reality. She regularly addresses the WTA's younger players in a mentoring process and is as thrilled to do so now, with her 70th birthday approaching in November, as she was in 1973. "Back then I just remember being so, so tired when it came to walking out to play at Wimbledon," she said. "I thought I would lose in the first round but somehow I got through to win the title again. I'm sure it was the joy of what we'd achieved that got me though.

"Now I'm just as pleased when I see all the young players and they do know what was done for them. I'm the luckiest person in the tennis world for my experiences but when I finish my talk to the youngsters, I always finish the same way, 'You know what you are doing? You are living the dream'."