This week we are in the week of tennis, and after we wrote about Amos Mansdorf, today it is the turn of the tennis player who changed the world of female tennis in particular, and the world of tennis as a whole and reached her 80th birthday today. Billie Jean King who, in addition to being a great tennis player, was a prominent feminist activist - was born on November 22, 1943.
Billie Jean Moffitt King was born into an athletic family in Long Beach, California. Her father was an amateur athlete in addition to his work as a firefighter and also played basketball and soccer. Her mother excelled in swimming and her younger brother Randy would later become a professional baseball player. Billie also excelled in baseball and softball and even won the Long Beach Softball Championship playing with girls 4-5 years older than her.
At the age of 11, her parents suggested that she switch to a more feminine sport, and she decided to go to the British royal sport, and started playing tennis on the public courts near her home, when one of them, many years later, was named after her. Already as a child she was characterized by an aggressive playing style that disturbed her coach. Her first conflict with her coaches was when she was banned from joining a group photo because she was wearing shorts her mother had made for her and not the traditional white tennis dress.
Already at the age of 14, she was sure of herself when she informed the Olympic champion in pole vaulting, Bob Richards, that she was going to be the best tennis player in the world. She began to fulfill her promise already at the age of 17 when she reached fourth place in the world, a year later she won the Wimbledon doubles championship together with her peer Karen Hantze. Hantze and Moffitt were the youngest couple in history to win Wimbledon. Her Wimbledon win was the first of 20 in total (singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles) which is a joint world record with Martina Navratilova.
Billie Jean King completes a revolution in the world of tennis
In 1962 she beat the Australian Margaret Court who was the best tennis player in the world at that time. In 1966 she won her first Grand Slam in singles tournaments, when she won Wimbledon. A year later she already won two when she defended her title and added a win at the US Open Championship. She was known as an aggressive, very competitive tennis player with many powerful strokes. Her style of play made her excel mainly in grass tournaments.
At that time, tennis was amateur, and King was also forced to work as a tennis instructor at a college in California, because of the ban on professionalism, money was transferred unofficially to senior athletes and King came out strongly against the American Federation claiming that it was blocking the progress of the industry. Among other things, thanks to her struggle, tennis moved into the era of professionalism, with her being among the first to benefit from it when she became the first athlete to cross the $100,000 mark as profit from games.
