It was in 1973 that then-reigning Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in a battle of the sexes tennis match that proved, indeed, that a woman could beat a man. But it has taken 34 long years for Wimbledon, a tournament King won six times in singles, has come around to awarding equal prize money to women.

At a news conference today, All England Club chairman Tim Phillips announced that what negligible differences remained between the prize money awarded to men and to women at Wimbledon would be eliminated. Roger Federer received $1.170 million as last year’s men’s champion, while the women’s champion, Amelie Mauresmo received $1.117 million.
“I think when you’ve got men and women playing at the same tournament, it is ludicrous to have a difference in pay," the always outspoken John McEnroe told Britain's Daily Telegraph Thursday. "It would be setting an example to the rest of society in general to have equal prize-money. There’s probably no other sport, and very few professions in this world, where a woman can earn as much as a man. I’m a father of two boys and four girls, and I just think kids will see that and say, ‘Hey, look at that, that’s good, what they are doing at Wimbledon.’”
Wimbledon was the last holdout among the Grand Slam tennis tournaments in not awarding equal prize money to women across the board. The U.S. Open and Australian Open have paid equal prize money for years, and the French Open moved part-way to equality last year, making the prizes for the two singles champions the same.
Inequity still exists for the other women singles and doubles players in the draw.
In singles, the women play two-out-of-three sets while the men play three-out-of-five. But the women's game has often been more popular thanks to such superstars as Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and, of course, Billie Jean King (pictured during NYC's Fashion Week earlier this month).
When Wimbledon first opened the tournament to professional competition in 1968, Billie Jean took the women’s singles title — and precisely 37.5 percent of the prize money that was awarded the male champion, Rod Laver. Five years later, Ms. King would accept a challenge from former Wimbledon champion, aging tennis hustler and self-described male chauvinist, Bobby Riggs, who claimed that the female game would always be inferior to a man’s. Billie Jean won the match in three sets, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I love this! Prior to this morning, I was not aware that Billie Jean King - the tennis legend, the national treasure, my personal hero - had even participated in a fashion show last week in New York. As part of Fashion Week, the great BJK sang and danced down the runway to Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean" and, according to all press accounts, got the biggest applause of any of the other celeb models that included First Lady Laura Bush, Katherine McPhee, Angela Bassett, Kelly Ripa and Rachel Ray. I had seen a spippet of this event, The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection, on "Entertainment Tonight" but instead of showing what looks to be a fun clip of BJK, we got a few clips of Mary Hart walking regally down the runway. Give me a break!
Anywho, BJK was wearing a red Gustavo Cadile pantsuit and red Adidas as she wiggled her way down the catwalk. The event had top designers team up with models to raise awareness about heart disease among women.
Billie Jean has always been willing to pitch in for a good cause.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)