|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Billie Jean King Year end No. 1 ranking: 1966-68, 1972 and 1974 Billie Jean Moffitt King first appeared on the women's rankings as the fourth best player in 1960. Over 40 years later she has helped crusade in building the women's professional game into a multi-million dollar tour, we see today. In 1961 she joined 18-year-old Karen Hantze to win the Wimbledon doubles title, which was to become the first of 20 at the prestigious Grand Slam. In 1979 she got her 20th crown with Martina Navratilova, with whom she won her last major the U.S. doubles in 1980. King's 265 career matches at Wimbledon, is second only to Navratilova 279.
The Californian specialised in serve-and-volley, aided by her speed and highly competitive nature, and that made King's career, a career of firsts. In 1968 she was the first woman to sign professional forms to tour and in 1971 became the first woman athlete to win over $100,000. In 1973, former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs, challenged King in a match titled: "The Battle of the Sexes," in the heavily publicised television extravaganza, which was watched by a record 30,472 spectators in the Houston Astrodome. King beat the 55-year-old Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. King became the fifth player to win all four major singles titles as she captured the 1972 French Open, which accompanied her final career major tally of 39. She won Wimbledon in 1966-68, 1972-73 and 1975, and the U.S. singles at Forest Hills in 1967, 1971-72 and 1974, plus an Australian crown in 1968. Rosie Casals partnered King frequently to Grand Slam glory, as she scored the Wimbledon triple (singles, mixed and doubles) twice in 1967 and 1973. Between 1963 and 1980 she was in the Worlds Top Ten 18 times, at number one in 1966-68, 1971 and 1972, holding her last ranking aged 40 in 1983, at 13. In a career encompassing amateur and open eras, she won 69 professional and 37 amateur singles titles, winning $1,966,487 in prize money and a 677-149 record.
Grand Slam Record Australian Singles winner 1968; Singles finalist 1969; Doubles finalist 1965, 1969; mixed winner 1968 French Singles winner 1972; Doubles winner 1972; Doubles finalist 1968, 1970; Mixed winner 1967, 1970; mixed finalist 1968 Wimbledon Singles winner 1966-68, 1972-73, 1975; Singles finalist 1963, 1969-70; Doubles winner 1961-62, 1965, 1967-68, 1970-73, 1979; Doubles finalist 1964, 1976; Mixed winner 1967, 1971, 1973-74; Mixed finalist 1966, 1978, 1983 U.S. Championships Singles winner 1967, 1971-72, 1974; Singles finalist 1965, 1968; Doubles winner 1964, 1967, 1974, 1978, 1980; Doubles finalist 1962, 1965-66, 1968, 1973, 1975, 1979; Mixed winner 1967, 1971, 1973, 1976; Mixed finalist 1975, 1977-78 Tournament Record (inc. Federation Cup) Italian Championships Singles winner 1970; Doubles winner 1970; Doubles finalist 1969, 1982 United States Federation Cup team member 1963-67, 1976-79; winning side 1963, 1966-67, 1976-79; losing side 1964-65 United States Wightman Cup team member
1961-67, 1970, 1977-78
|
