40 Years Ago, Women’s Tennis Got Organized

Written by: Staff on 24th September 2010

40 Years Ago, Women’s Tennis Got Organized

Jelena Jankovic (SRB) |

September 23rd, marked the 40th birthday of a revolution which would eventually lead to what we now know as the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

It was on this day in 1970 that a group of nine women players signed up to play the Virginia Slims Houston Invitational. Disgusted at the fact the Pacific Southwest tournament proposed paying the men 12 times more in prize money than the women, World Tennis founder Gladys Heldman consulted Billie Jean King about what could be done about the situation, and when the Pacific Southwest event refused to respond to a threatened boycott the first women’s only event was organized.

The event was backed by tobacco company Philip Morris which upped the prize money from $5000 to $7500, and its subsidiary Virginia Slims went on to become a long-term and faithful supporter of women’s tennis for decades, until new legislation eventually outlawed such sponsorship (and ignored the positive that the company was actually promoting sport).

The Original Nine, as they became known, were Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Judy Dalton, Kerry Melville Reid, Julie Heldman, Kristy Pigeon, Peaches Bartkowicz and Valerie Ziegenfuss. There were consequences, as Australians Dalton and Melville were both forbidden to play their own national championships, and Dalton was even prevented from using her Slazenger racquet.

“I felt a sense of both fear and exhilaration,” recalls King on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour website. “We knew we were making history and we had such a strong sense of purpose. I just kept thinking about the vision we had for the future of our sport. We wanted to ensure that any girl in the world that was good enough would have a place to go and make a living playing tennis.”

Topics: Billie Jean King, Exhilaration, Faithful Supporter, First Women, Girl In The World, Nancy Richey, New Legislation, Pacific Southwest, Philip Morris, Playing Tennis, Prize Money, Rosie Casals, Sense Of Purpose, September 23rd, Slazenger, Sony Ericsson Wta Tour, Tobacco Company, Virginia Slims, Women Players, World Tennis