Billie Jean King is the most influential figure in tennis history. Her impact goes far beyond the American’s mightily impressive haul of 39 Grand Slams. The tenacity and drive she’s displayed in championing women’s tennis makes her a gamechanger. No player before or since has shook up the tennis landscape in the way King has over many decades.
Born Bille Jean Moffit , on November 27th 1943, to parents Betty and Bill. Her brother Randy became a successful pitcher in Major League baseball. She initially commenced her sporting journey by playing softball before turning her attention to tennis.
King’s success in tennis straddled the amateur and Open eras. Her tally of 129 singles titles features 78 won on the WTA circuit that she helped to create. The Grand Slams total read as 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles and a further eleven in mixed. King has often claimed she derived her greatest pleasure from the mixed doubles triumphs. Eight of her 11 triumphs in that discipline came with fellow American Owen Davidson.
Her tally of 12 Grand Slam singles titles include six triumphs at Wimbledon. She achieved a treble (66-68) before losing to Britain’s Ann Jones in the 1969 final. Then, in 1970, Margaret Court defeated her 14-12, 11-9 in a final featuring the most games in any women’s singles final at SW19. King would regain the title in 1972 and then add further triumphs in 1973 and 1975. King dominated women’s doubles at the grass court major. On ten occasions she took the title, A litany of success that stretched from 1961-1979. Five of them were won alongside her most frequent doubles partner Rosie Casals. Two were with Karen Susman, and solitary triumphs in alliance with Maria Bueno, Betty Stove and Martina Navratilova. Four mixed doubles titles see her total rise to 20 Wimbledon titles, matched only by Navratilova. In 1967 and 1973, King achieved the incredibly rare feat of the Wimbledon Triple Crown – all three titles in the same year.
