For King, tennis just part of Open
Billie Jean King is good at many things. Getting enough sleep isn’t one of them. “When I sleep in now, I’m still catching up from the 1970s,” she says.
The other night, King had spoken at three corporate events at the US Open, at the national tennis center that bears her name, then went home, saw that Rafael Nadal was still playing but had lost the first set, 6-0, to Austria’s Dominic Thiem, and turned off the light, intending to go to sleep.
That didn’t last long. “That darn match,” King said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I was thinking I’d find out in the morning who won, no biggie, but the tennis was miraculous and it went to five sets before Nadal won, so I watched until 2 a.m., and that’s not healthy.”
King finds precious little time to sleep during these two weeks in particular, the two weeks of the US Open, the ultimate home game for the tennis icon and women’s rights advocate who, less than three months from her 75th birthday, is having the time of her life.
“It’s fun. I just never stop. My life is typical of someone who’s had to wait longer than others. Because I was a disruptor, I wasn’t in favor, and there were a lot of companies that wouldn’t touch me. Now they look back, and say wow, this is the right thing to do. Before, I had to walk on eggshells to not lose people, but people today, especially young people, are so much more direct, and I think that’s great.”
Now companies flock to her, and she to them, imploring them to treat their employees equally, with equal pay the cornerstone of her argument. King honed her activist skills on the tennis court, so it is only fitting that it all comes full circle at the US Open, the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments to offer women the same prize money as men.
That probably doesn’t come as a surprise. But this next part always does.
The Australian Open began paying women the same as men in 2001, the French Open in 2006 and Wimbledon in 2007.
So the US Open began equal pay sometime in, say, the 1990s, right? No, it was 1973.
“Billie had convinced the organization that it was just the right thing to do,” said Lew Sherr, U.S. Tennis Association chief revenue officer.
Now, 45 years later, the USTA has partnered with the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative to host an event Thursday evening celebrating corporate responsibility and honoring Disney CEO Bob Iger and “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts.
“For us, it was natural to give Billie a platform to further her legacy of working with corporate leaders in the country and around the world to inspire change,” Sherr said in a phone interview.
The leadership initiative takes King into companies and corporations throughout the year, holding conversations with employees and executives about equal pay, inclusion and more opportunities for women and people of color.
“Change is in the air now,” King said. “It’s happening slowly but surely. You see all these differences, it feels like it’s finally becoming normal. Women are stronger than ever. Women are starting to really believe in themselves. They’re Title IX grandbabies now. And the men! Younger men are supporting opportunities for their sisters and mothers much more now.
“Oh my God, it’s so great. It’s not the 1970s anymore.”
Editor’s note: In 2008, Christine Brennan and Billie Jean King co-authored “Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes”.