As happens in most sports, tennis players need (and still need) a good amount of extra effort to achieve similar prominence as athletes of the opposite sex. Check out some interesting facts about women’s tennis:
This is one of the few sports in which women were allowed to play at the end of the 19th century. Of the four Grand Slam tournaments, only in the Australian Open, athletes were not allowed to participate since the first edition – the Australian tournament began to be played in 1905 and women were able to play from the 1922 edition. Wimbledon began in 1884, the US Open in 1887, and Roland Garros in 1897, all three with women’s competitions from the beginning.
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At the Olympics, they were also almost always present. With the exception of Saint Louis 1904, from Paris 1900 onwards. They were able to participate in all Olympic Games in which men also played the sport. But that doesn’t mean that gender inequality didn’t have to be tackled in women’s tennis.
It is impossible to talk about gender equality in women’s tennis without highlighting the importance of American Billie Jean King. In protest against the difference in prizes paid to men and women in championships, she and eight other tennis players, known as the Original Nine (the original 9), organized their own circuit, the Virginia Slims Circuit, in Houston, Texas, in 1970.
Even after the USLTA (acronym in English for United States Tennis Association) informed that it would not recognize the event and that the 9 would be suspended from the entity’s tournaments. They held the championship, which was the kickoff, in 1973. Founding of the WTA (acronym in English for Women’s Tennis Association).
In the same year, King, then number 1 in the world. Won the match that became known as the Battle of the Sexes, against retired tennis player Bobby Riggs. Who believed in the inferiority of women’s tennis.
In the Grand Slams, despite the centuries-old female presence, equality in the value of the prize money took time. The US Open equalized prize pools for men and women in 1973. Not coincidentally, the year the Original 9 founded the WTA. The other tournaments only changed their prize pools this century: the Australian Open in 2001. Roland Garros in 2006, and, finally, Wimbledon in 2007.
