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.