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King: Australia ‘made a difference’

  • Linda Pearce
  • Elizabeth Bai

Eight years after her last visit to Melbourne Park, Billie Jean King has paid a warm tribute to the Australian influence on her remarkable career.

“When I come to Australia, I’m always so happy,’’ said the winner of 39 Grand Slam singles, doubles and mixed titles. “You really made such a difference in my life, because without the Australians I never would have become No.1. 

“I came down here and practised and got coaching for the first time – a daily coach, not a coach in the park or somewhere. I came down here and gave up university to be No.1.’’

She hit with Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Owen Davidson, Lesley Turner, Tony Roche, so many more. 

“Hitting with (Roy) Emerson every day, forget it. Kills you! You talk to any player. He was the toughest.’’

MORE: King plays tribute to inspirational Dokic

While basketball was her favourite sport growing up, along with American football, brother Randall Moffatt was a former major league baseball player of 12 years’ standing, most with the San Francisco Giants.

But King’s surprise sporting interest?

“I love Australian Rules football,'' said the special guest speaker at the Australian Open 2018 Inspirational Series. 

"It’s great. I wish we had it all over the world!’’

Tennis-wise, young Billie remembers having her first hit of tennis as a fifth-grader growing up in Long Beach, California. Only when she discovered a venue that offered free lessons every Tuesday did the true opening come. “My brother and I were real park rats, really. You have to have access to have opportunity.’’

At 11, she told her parents that she wanted to be the world No.1. At 12, she was daydreaming at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and seeing an all-white world: shoes, socks, clothes, balls. And people. “I said ‘where is everybody else?’’

At that moment, she realised that reaching the top would give her a platform to help change tennis, and create a more inclusive world. It was also the day when King decided what to do with the rest of her life.

At 13, she saw Althea Gibson, the first African-American player to win a major, at close range. “That day changed me forever, because I understood that if you can see it, you can be it. I saw what it looked like to be No.1 … and then I was off and running.’’

King went on to establish the WTA, as a pioneer for pay parity and gender equality, as well as an advocate for social justice. Her famous 1973 match against Bobby Riggs inspired the successful film ‘Battle of the Sexes’.

Among Thursday's guests in Melbourne was Judy (Tegart) Dalton, one of two Australians – with Kerry (Melville) Reid – who were among the original nine women who signed symbolic $1 cheques and formed their own tour as the number of women’s events dwindled.

Their goals? King: “Any girl, anywhere in the world, if she were good enough, there would be a place for her to compete, and then to be recognised for her accomplishments, not just her looks, and also to finally be able to make a living.

"That was our dream, the nine of us, and then we went to (become) the WTA in ’73 and that continued to be the dream when we got everybody together, not just the nine of us. So the players today are living our dream.’’

At the first open Wimbledon, in 1968, King received 750 pounds as the women’s champion, while Laver earned 2000 pounds for winning the men’s title. Today, all four majors have granted pay parity, with Wimbledon the last to acquiesce in 2007.

Either Caroline Wozniacki or Simona Halep will tuck a cheque for $4 million inside the treasured Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy – on, well, ahem, Rod Laver Arena – on Saturday night, not one cent less than the triumphant man will pocket just over 24 hours later.

Back in 1973, feminism was a very dirty word. King knew that if she described herself thus when asked before the Riggs match watched by an audience of 90 million, that “half the TVs would go off’’. Aware that semantics are everything, she instead declared her support for “the women’s movement”. Viewers could handle that.

One of the sport's most extraordinary figures is still dealing with everything admirably and inspirationally, her legacy extraordinary, women’s tennis left forever with an unpayable debt.