Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (2011)
Nation:	United States
Birthday:	November 22, 1943
Size:	164 cm
Playing hand:	Right
Prize money:	$ 1,966,487
singles
Career record:	695: 155
Career title:	78 WTA
Highest ranking:	2 (December 11, 1977)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	87:37
Career title:	6 WTA
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Billie Jean King (1978)

Billie Jean King (born November 22, 1943 in Long Beach , California ) is a former American tennis player .

Life

As Billie Jean Moffitt married born 1965 Lawrence King and was known worldwide under the name of her husband. Billie Jean King is one of ten players who have won all four Grand Slam titles in singles . At the US Open and at Wimbledon, she won singles, doubles and mixed. At Wimbledon , she is the record winner alongside Martina Navrátilová with a total of 20 titles in various competitions. At her last tournament victory on June 6, 1983 in Birmingham , she was 39 years old; this makes her the oldest individual winner on the tour to this day.

In 1972, she was by the magazine Sports Illustrated for Sportswoman of the Year chosen. It was also King who founded today's WTA in London in 1973 . An important concern for her was the equality of women and men in sport. In 1973 in a stylized exhibition fight as Battle of the Sexes , filmed with the same name in 2017 , she defeated the then 55-year-old Bobby Riggs in front of 30,492 spectators (the second largest backdrop that ever had a tennis game) . Forty years after the exhibition match, the theory emerged that Riggs purposely lost this duel - in contrast to the first match, which he clearly won against Margaret Court - to pay off gambling debts. That same year, King was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Associated Press . It was her second award after 1967.

The Philadelphia Freedoms was a team in the then World Team Tennis League . In 1974 King was appointed to coach this team; she was the first woman to coach a professional American tennis team that consisted of both women and men.

Against the background of her success as a tennis player, coach and, against all odds, an advocate of equality between men and women, the singer Elton John dedicated the song Philadelphia Freedom to her in 1975 , which became a bestseller.

In 1987 Billie Jean King was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Tennis . In 1990 she was listed by Life Magazine as one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century . In 2000 she received the Capitol Award of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for her commitment as an openly lesbian person. Her support for an educational film for the public schools in Chicago and her commitment to the boards of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the National AIDS Fund were highlighted .

King is one of nine players, the Original 9 , who competed in the 1970 Virginia Slims Invitational , hosted and sponsored by Gladys Heldman .

Billie Jean King lives with her partner Ilana Kloss in New York and Chicago.

Success in Grand Slam tournaments

Record Grand Slam winners in women's singles

rank	Tennis player	title
1.	Margaret Court	24
2.	Serena Williams	23
3.	Steffi Graf	22nd
4th	Helen Wills Moody	19th
5.	Chris Evert	18th
	/ Martina Navratilova
7th	Suzanne Lenglen	12
	Billie Jean King
As of January 28, 2017

singles

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	1966	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Maria Bueno	6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 1
2.	1967	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Ann Haydon-Jones	6: 3, 6: 4
3.	1967	US Championships	Grand Slam	race	Ann Haydon-Jones	11: 9, 6: 4
4th	1968	Australian Championships	Grand Slam	race	Margaret Court	6: 1, 6: 2
5.	1968	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Judy Tegart	9: 7, 7: 5
6th	1971	US Open	Grand Slam	race	Rosie Casals	6: 4, 7: 6
7th	1972	French Open	Grand Slam	sand	Evonne Goolagong	6: 3, 6: 3
8th.	1972	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Evonne Goolagong	6: 3, 6: 3
9.	1972	US Open	Grand Slam	race	Kerry Melville	6: 3, 7: 5
10.	1973	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Chris Evert	6-0, 7-5
11.	1974	US Open	Grand Slam	race	Evonne Goolagong	3: 6, 6: 3, 7: 5
12.	1975	Wimbledon	Grand Slam	race	Evonne Cawley	6-0, 6-1

• Australian Open - 1 mixed title
• French Open - 1 double title, 2 mixed titles
• Wimbledon - 10 double titles (1961 to 1979), 4 mixed titles
• US Open - 5 double titles, 4 mixed titles

Awards

• 2006: Women's World Award - World Athlete Award
• 2009: Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 2012: Honorary Doctorate from the United States Sports Academy in Daphne , Alabama

Web links

Commons : Billie Jean King  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• WTA profile of Billie Jean King (English)
• ITF profile Billie Jean King (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Billie Jean King (English)
• Billie Jean King in the "International Tennis Hall of Fame" (English; with picture)
• Literature by and about Billie Jean King in the catalog of the German National Library
• Billie Jean King in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ kicker online (September 27, 2009): Victory with almost 39! Date-Krumm is wondering itself
2. ↑ wtatennis.com (January 24, 2013): WTA To Celebrate 40th Anniversary In 2013
3. ↑ Hendrik Ternieden: The Gender Struggle and the Mafia Spiegel Online August 28, 2013 (last accessed on November 15, 2017)
4. ↑ wtatennis.com: Original 9 Reunion: It's A Wrap! ( Memento of December 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ The Irish Times : Obama names Robinson for top civilian honor , July 31, 2009 (English)
6. ^ Honorary Doctorates. In: ussa.edu. United States Sports Academy, archived from the original on May 4, 2014 ; accessed on May 4, 2014 .