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Tag: women's tennis association

  • Billie Jean King Fast Facts | CNN

    Billie Jean King Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of tennis champion and LGBTQ activist Billie Jean King.

    Birth date: November 22, 1943

    Birth place: Long Beach, California

    Birth name: Billie Jean Moffitt

    Father: Willard J. Moffitt, engineer for a fire department

    Mother: Betty Moffitt, Avon sales representative

    Marriage: Ilana Kloss (October 18, 2018-present); Larry King (September 17, 1965-1987, divorced)

    Education: Attended Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles), 1961-1964

    Has won 39 Grand Slam championships overall in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, including 12 Grand Slam singles titles.

    Is the founder and first president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

    Threatened to boycott the 1973 US Open if equal prize money was not awarded. The fight she started for equal pay in the Grand Slams took 34 years to reach fruition when Wimbledon became the last of the four to fall into line in 2007.

    She remained friends with “Battle of the Sexes” opponent Bobby Riggs off the court until his death from prostate cancer in 1995.

    READ MORE: What you should know about tennis champ Billie Jean King

    1959 – Makes her tennis debut.

    1961 – Wins her first Wimbledon title, in doubles with Karen Hautze.

    1966 – Wins her first Wimbledon singles title.

    1966-1968, 1972, 1973, 1975 – Wimbledon singles champion.

    1967, 1971-1972, 1974 – US Open singles champion.

    1968 – Australian Open singles champion.

    1971 – Becomes the first female athlete to win $100,000 in a single year.

    1972 – French Open singles champion.

    1972 – Wins the US Open and threatens to bow out the following year if the prize money for the men and women is not equal.

    1973 – The US Open becomes the first major tournament to award equal prize money to men and women.

    June 30, 1973 – Establishes the WTA.

    September 20, 1973 – At 29, wins the “Battle of the Sexes” match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Houston Astrodome against 55-year-old Riggs. King earns the $100,000 winner-take-all prize.

    1973-1975, 1980-1981 – President of WTA.

    1974 – Is a founding partner, along with her husband Larry, of World Team Tennis, a competitive co-ed circuit league. She also helps establish the Women’s Sports Foundation.

    May 2, 1981 – Acknowledges that she is a lesbian after Marilyn Barnett files a palimony lawsuit against her. She becomes one of the first professional athletes to publicly disclose her homosexuality.

    1984 – Retires from professional tennis.

    2006 – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York, is rededicated as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Center is the home of the US Open.

    August 12, 2009 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    December 17, 2013 – Is named to the US delegation for the opening ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia by President Barack Obama. She later withdraws due to her mother’s illness.

    2014 – Establishes the non-profit, Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative.

    February 15, 2014 – King is named as part of the presidential delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Russia, after having to withdraw from the opening ceremonies.

    September 22, 2017 – The film “Battle of the Sexes,” opens. The film is about King’s 1973 tennis match victory over Riggs.

    January 12, 2018 – Calls for the Australian Open’s Margaret Court Arena to be renamed because of the Melbourne Park champion’s views on homosexuality. During a media conference King states, “I was fine until she said lately so many derogatory things about my community. I’m a gay woman … that really went deep in my heart and soul.”

    September 21, 2019 – The city of Long Beach, California, opens the Billie Jean King Main Library. The building is located in the new $533 million Civic Center. The City Council voted unanimously to name the building after the famous native.

    September 17, 2020 – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announces that the Fed Cup, an international women’s tennis team competition, has been renamed the Billie Jean King Cup.

    August 17, 2021 – King’s memoir, “All In: An Autobiography,” is published.

    February 13, 2022 – King serves as the Honorary Coin Toss Captain for Super Bowl LVI and flips the ceremonial coin ahead of kickoff, helping the NFL mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

    June 3, 2022 – French President Emmanuel Macron presents King with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian award.

    November 7, 2022 – In an interview with CNN, King reveals her “pet peeve” is Wimbledon’s “horrible” all white uniform policy. The next day in a statement to CNN, the All-England Tennis Club (AELTC) says: “Prioritising women’s health and supporting players based on their individual needs is very important to us, and we are in discussions with the WTA, with manufacturers and with the medical teams about the ways in which we can do that.”

    October 18, 2023 – King is revealed to be a contestant on season 10 of the show “The Masked Singer.”

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  • Women’s tennis returns to China after Peng Shuai boycott | CNN

    Women’s tennis returns to China after Peng Shuai boycott | CNN


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) kicked off its first tournament in China in more than three years Monday, ending its boycott over the uncertain fate of tennis star Peng Shuai.

    One of China’s most recognizable sports figures, Peng was feared to be held incommunicado by the Chinese government in 2021 after she accused retired Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex during a years-long on-off relationship.

    Following the accusation, Peng disappeared from public view for more than two weeks, prompting the world’s biggest tennis stars and the United Nations to demand answers as to her whereabouts – as well as a full investigation into her allegations against Zhang.

    Peng, a three-time Olympian and grand slam doubles champion, later denied having made the sexual assault claim. But many international observers and sports leaders continued to raise questions about Peng’s safety and her ability to speak freely given the Communist Party’s well-documented record of quashing dissent.

    Soon after the controversy exploded in late 2021, the WTA announced it would suspend all tournaments in China, with the chairman and CEO Steve Simon saying he had “serious doubts that (Peng) is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation.”

    At the time, Simon said the WTA would not return until there was a “full and transparent investigation” with no censorship, and until there was sufficient evidence to allay concerns about Peng’s safety and whereabouts.

    But despite the lack of such an investigation, Simon announced this April that the suspension, which he called a “principled stand,” would come to an end by September.

    The WTA had already pulled its tournaments in China in 2020 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

    “After 16 months of suspended tennis competition in China and sustained efforts at achieving our original requests, the situation has shown no sign of changing,” he said at the time. “We have concluded we will never fully secure those goals, and it will be our players and tournaments who ultimately will be paying an extraordinary price for their sacrifices.”

    He added that the WTA has been in contact with people close to Peng, and “are assured she is living safely with her family in Beijing.” Peng “cannot be forgotten through this process,” he said in the statement.

    The Guangzhou Open kicked off Monday, lasting through Saturday in southern China, with another tournament scheduled later in September in the Chinese city of Ningbo, and finally the China Open in Beijing from September 30 to October 8.

    Peng last appeared in February 2022 when she met Olympic officials at the Beijing Winter Games and then was interviewed by independent French sport news site L’Equipe.

    The WTA’s decision to resume play has been criticized by some human rights groups and athletes. The international group Human Rights Watch called the move a “huge disappointment,” urging the world to “keep Peng Shuai’s case in the public eye.”

    And French player Alize Cornet, one of the first players to support Peng with the widely-circulated hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai, will not be heading to China to compete – though did not directly reference Peng, Reuters reported, citing the French newspaper Le Parisien.

    Cornet had posted an Instagram story saying her season would only resume later in October, the newspaper said.

    “Staying true to my convictions and careful about my health, I decided I will not be playing in China this year,” Cornet was quoted as saying, Reuters reported.

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  • Iga Swiatek: World No.1 calls for more support for Ukrainian tennis players | CNN

    Iga Swiatek: World No.1 calls for more support for Ukrainian tennis players | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    World No.1 Iga Świątek has called for more support for Ukrainian players from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), adding that “everything we discuss in tennis is about Belarusian and Russian players.”

    Świątek’s comments on Tuesday follow incidents at the Indian Wells tournament, where Russia’s Anastasia Potapova wore a Spartak Moscow soccer jersey, and Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko pulled out of the tournament this week.

    Tsurenko had been due to play against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka but did not end up taking to the court Monday, with Reuters news agency reporting that organizers said that the Ukrainian had withdrawn for personal reasons.

    When asked about Tsurenko at her post-match press conference, the 21-year-old Polish star Świątek said: “I totally understand why she withdrew, because honestly I respect the Ukrainian girls so much, because if like a bomb landed in my country or if my home was destroyed, I don’t know if I could handle that.”

    As of March 12, at least 8,231 civilians have been killed and 13,734 injured in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began 24 February last year, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    OHCHR says it believes that the actual figures are “considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”

    “I feel more should be done to help Ukrainian players because everything we discuss in tennis is about Belarusian and Russian players,” Świątek said Tuesday.

    Świątek was also critical of the WTA’s leadership after Russian Potapova entered the court Sunday wearing a Spartak Moscow soccer shirt ahead of her match against American Jessica Pegula. Potopova has been pictured wearing the shirt on several occasions, including in Dubai, in a photo she posted to her own Instagram account.

    “It’s a tough situation,” Świątek said.”There is a lot of tension in the locker room that, well, obviously it’s going to be there, because there is a war.

    “But maybe it should be a little bit less if the WTA put some action at the beginning to kind of explain to everybody what is right and what is not,” Świątek added.

    CNN reached out to the WTA for comment following Świątek’s criticism.

    Earlier on Tuesday when asked about Tsurenko’s withdrawal the WTA said to CNN: “First and foremost, we acknowledge the emotions Lesia and all of our Ukrainian athletes have and continue to manage during this very difficult period of time.

    “We are witnessing an ongoing horrific war that continues to bring unforeseen circumstances with far reaching consequences that are affecting the world, as well as the global WTA Tour and its members.

    “The WTA has consistently reflected our full support for Ukraine and strongly condemn the actions that have been brought forth by the Russian Government.

    “With this, a fundamental principle of the WTA remains, which is ensuring that individual athletes may participate in professional tennis events based on merit and without any form of discrimination, and not penalized due to the decisions made by the leadership of their country,” the WTA statement added.

    Three-time grand slam winner Świątek continued her impressive form on Wednesday, reaching the quarterfinals at Indian Wells after defeating Emma Raducanu 6-3 6-1.

    On Tuesday, Świątek beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in straight sets.

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