In the beginning, there were no coaches, endorsements or free tennis shoes.
As a kid growing up “on the wrong side of the tracks” in Long Beach, California, she decided, at age 12, to become “the best player in the world.” Her father was a firefighter, her mother sold Avon products door-to-door. King’s fame grew along with her stack of titles. Women’s tennis has never said that we’re better than the men. That we could do anything that anybody else can do. We needed to trust that we were strong, and vital. But they didn’t think about the whole body. They were in their heads so much because they’re so bright. “The trouble with feminists at the time,” says King, “is that most of them were feminists from the neck up. Fighting for women’s rights beyond tennis, King huddled with Gloria Steinem, who encouraged her to take advantage of the visibility of female athletes. I don’t think people think of us as performers, but we really are.
“It’s an honor,” says King, who turns 70 in November, “but it’s kind of like: What took you so long? There are so many great athletes. For the first time in its 27-year history, the series will focus on a sports figure, while tapping friends and fellow players (Chris Evert, Margaret Court, Serena Williams, Hillary Clinton, Elton John) for perspective. “Like a team tennis match: Boys and girls on a level playing field.”Īnd that’s where PBS’s “American Masters” comes in. “I just know how I want the world to look,” says King today. Little did she know that her crusade would take her far beyond tennis. The game turned King into a household name and gave her what she really wanted: A platform from which to fight for equality in her sport, which was heavily tilted toward men in terms of playing opportunities and prize money. And yet, she humiliated Riggs, beating him in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Said King at the time, “He hustles off the court and I hustle on the court, and that’s where it matters.” King was 29, intensely focused, and quietly, lethally determined. Riggs was 55 and all mouth, telling women they should stay in the bedroom and the kitchen. At the height of the growing women’s movement, it was dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes.” Fifty million Americans tuned in to see if a woman could beat a man playing tennis. 1 player in the world, self-promoting chauvinist Bobby Riggs. It’s still the biggest audience ever to watch a televised tennis match: The 1973 throw-down at the Houston Astrodome between women’s tennis star Billie Jean King and the former No. What Novak Djokovic blames for his visa fiasco News anchors caught trashing Djokovic in viral video: 'Sneaky a-hole' Howard Stern grand slams Novak Djokovic's no-vax stance: 'What a f-king a-hole' Novak Djokovic in Australian Open draw as visa saga drags on
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