Episode Five: Ace of All Trades – Tennis, Althea, and the Williams Sisters
Tennis is one of the sports closest to
gender equality in the world
Meet the tennis queen, Althea Gibson, with the actual queen.
Althea Gibson became the first person of color to win a Grand Slam event, the French Open, in 1956.
In 1957, Althea won the singles title at Wimbledon, becoming the first Black champion in its 80 year history, and the first champion to receive the winners trophy directly from Queen Elizabeth II.
When she came home, she became only the second Black American (after Jesse Owens) to have a ticker tape parade in NYC. One month later, she won the US Open.
After winning more than 11 Grand Slam titles in singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles, she was forced to retire from amateur tennis at the end of 1958 because there was no prize money in tennis for women. Althea has been voted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Black Athletes Hall of Fame, the National Women’s Hall of Fame among many others.
Open Era and the Virginia Slims League
The women’s singles champion at Wimbledon in 1970 was Margaret Court and she received a $15,000 bonus for this accomplishment. The male champion received $1 million. Fed up with this type of treatment, nine of the most prominent women players boycotted a hard court tournament that agreed to a 12:1 pay difference and created their own tournament in Houston. With Billie Jean King leading, those nine women created their own circuit dubbed the Virginia Slims Circuit, which would eventually evolve into the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
The Original Nine
Battle of the Sexes
In September of 1973, Bobby Riggs e challenged world #2 Billie Jean King to a Battle of the Sexes after beating Margaret Court earlier that year. Although Billie understood that the entire match was a circus, she felt personal responsibility to play and win the match for the women’s liberation movement. It was a whole spectacle in the Houston Astrodome and drew more than 30,000 people in the stands, 50 million viewers in the US, and 90 million viewers worldwide. After a shaky start falling behind 3-2, King rallied to win the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. It provided invaluable exposure to women’s tennis with that audience and altered people’s stereotypes of women, both of which contributed to the impending expansion of women’s tennis.
The Greats
Billie Jean King
Chris Evert
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Martina Navratilova
Steffi Graf
The Williams Sisters
aka The best sibling duo in sports
Stats of the Champions
Venus has won 49 singles titles, 7 grand slam singles titles
Serena has won 73 singles titles, 23 grand slam singles titles
Venus and Serena have won 22 titles when playing doubles together, including 14 Grand Slam titles and 3 Olympic gold medals
In 2002, Venus reached all 4 grand slam finals and Serena won 3 grand slam finals all against Venus
Venus won Wimbledon in 2005, 2007 and 2008
Serena won the Australian Open in 2005, 2007, 2009 and Wimbledon in 2009 and US Open in 2008
Venus, Wimbledon and Equal Pay
By 2005, the US Open and Australian Open paid men and women equal prize money but the French open and Wimbledon refused to pay equally. Venus met with the tournament directors and still they did not budge. On the eve of the 2006 Wimbledon tournament, Venus wrote an op-ed in the British newspaper The Times arguing for equal pay.
In response, the British PM and much of Parliament supported Venus and women’s tennis goals. Under enormous pressure from this letter and other sources, Wimbledon announced equal prize money in 2007 with the French Open following one day later.
Serena and the Quest for 24
In 2016, Serena tied the open era grand slam record, winning her 22nd grand slam at Wimbledon. Then in 2017, she broke that record winning the Australian Open securing her 23rd major (later on we would find out that she was pregnant at the time with her daughter Olympia). She is still seeking #24 after giving birth to Olympia, and the whole tennis world is rooting for her to do it.
The Next Generation
Naomi Osaka
Sofia Kenin
Madison Keys
Sloane Stephens
Coco Gauff
Ons Jabeur