Players | WTA Tennis English Career in Review Billie Jean King Biography Maiden name is Moffitt ... At age 11, when she bought her first tennis racquet with money saved from odd jobs and was taking free lessons near her home in Long Beach, California, told mom Betty, "I am going to be No.1 in the world" ... Attended Los Angeles State University for three years ... In September 1970 was one of nine players who broke away from the tennis establishment and accepted $1 contracts from promoter Gladys Heldman in Houston; revolt led to the birth of women's professional tennis with the formation of the Virginia Slims Tour and the creation of the Women's Tennis Association, which King spearheaded in 1973 ... Also founded the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974 to increase opportunities for female participation in sports; continues to serve on organization's board ... Co-founder of groundbreaking co-ed professional tennis league WorldTeamTennis in 1974 ... Is involved in a variety of enterprises including publishing, promoting tournaments and tennis exhibitions and has doe extensive tennis commentary for television ... Interests include ballet, old and new movies ...

Father, Bill, was an engineer in the Long Beach Fire Dept.; younger brother, Randy Moffitt, was a Major League Baseball pitcher for 13 years ... Wrote book titled We Have Come A Long Way, published in November 1988. No videos found 0 - Ranked No.1 in the world five times between 1966 and 1974 and was in Top 10 a total of 17 years (beginning in 1960); ranked No.1 on US doubles list for a record 12 years, eight with Rosie Casals. - Owns 39 total Grand Slam titles (12 singles, 16 doubles, 11 mixed), third on the all-time list. - Enjoyed greatest success at Wimbledon, where she holds a record 20 titles combined in singles (six), doubles (10) and mixed doubles (four). - Won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at 1973 Wimbledon, one of three players to accomplish a Grand Slam Triple Crown in the Open Era (Court and Navratilova are the others).

- Is one of just nine players in history to hold a singles title in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments, along with Court, Connolly, Fry, Graf, Hart, Evert, Navratilova and S.Williams. - Only woman to win the US singles title on four surfaces (grass, clay, carpet, hardcourts). - Oldest player to win professional Tour title by winning 1983 Birmingham at 39 years, 7 months, 23 days. - Unbeaten in 27 Fed Cup doubles matches and third in total wins (with 52); Captain of US Fed Cup team in 1995-96 and 1998-2001. - US Olympic women's tennis team captain in 1996 and 2000.

SINGLES Winner (67): 1968 - Wimbledon ; 1969 - Pacific Southwest, South African Open, Natal, Dublin, Stockholm; 1970 - Rome, Sydney, Durban, London Indoors, VS Richmond; 1971 - US Open , San Francisco, Long Beach, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, US Indoors-Detroit, Boston, San Diego, Hamburg [German Open], Hoylake, Kitzbuhel, Houston, US Clay Courts, Louisville, Phoenix, London Indoors; 1972 - Roland Garros , US Open , Wimbledon , Phoenix, Richmond, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Tucson, Charlotte, Bristol; 1973 - Wimbledon , Phoenix, Indianapolis, Denver, Nottingham, VS Hawaii, Tokyo [Toray]; 1974 - US Open , San Francisco, Washington DC, Detroit, Akron, US Indoors-New York; 1975 - Wimbledon , Sarasota; 1977 - Lionel San Antonio, Phoenix, San Paulo, San Juan, Japan Invitational, London Indoors; 1979 - Tokyo Sillook, Stockholm; 1980 - Detroit, Houston, Tokyo Sil

look; 1982 - Birmingham; 1983 - Birmingham.

DOUBLES Winner (101 Open Era): 1980 - US Open (w/Navratilova); 1979 - Wimbledon (w/Navratilova); 1978 - US Open (w/Navratilova); 1974 - US Open (w/Casals), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Casals); 1973 - Wimbledon (w/Casals); 1972 - Roland Garros (w/Stove), Wimbledon (w/Stove); 1971 - Wimbledon (w/Casals); 1970 - Wimbledon (w/Casals), Rome (w/Casals), Queen's Club (w/Casals); 1968 - Wimbledon (w/Casals), Winchester (w/Casals).

MIXED DOUBLES Winner (7 Open Era): 1976 - US Open (w/Dent); 1974 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson); 1973 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson), US Open (w/Davidson); 1971 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson), US Open (w/Davidson); 1970 - Roland Garros (w/Hewitt). ADDITIONAL Players | WTA Tennis English Career in Review Billie Jean King Biography Maiden name is Moffitt ... At age 11, when she bought her first tennis racquet with money saved from odd jobs and was taking free lessons near her home in Long Beach, California, told mom Betty, "I am going to be No.1 in the world" ... Attended Los Angeles State University for three years ... In September 1970 was one of nine players who broke away from the tennis establishment and accepted $1 contracts from promoter Gladys Heldman in Houston; revolt led to the birth of women's professional tennis with the formation of the Virginia Slims Tour and the creation of the Women's Tennis Association, which King spearheaded in 1973 ...

Also founded the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974 to increase opportunities for female participation in sports; continues to serve on organization's board ... Co-founder of groundbreaking co-ed professional tennis league WorldTeamTennis in 1974 ... Is involved in a variety of enterprises including publishing, promoting tournaments and tennis exhibitions and has doe extensive tennis commentary for television ... Interests include ballet, old and new movies ... Father, Bill, was an engineer in the Long Beach Fire Dept.; younger brother, Randy Moffitt, was a Major League Baseball pitcher for 13 years ... Wrote book titled We Have Come A Long Way, published in November 1988. No videos found 0 - Ranked No.1 in the world five times between 1966 and 1974 and was in Top 10 a total of 17 years (beginning in 1960); ranked No.1 on US doubles list for a record 12 years, eight with Rosie Casals. - Owns 39 total Grand Slam titles (12 singles, 16 doubles, 11 mixed), third on the all-time list.

- Enjoyed greatest success at Wimbledon, where she holds a record 20 titles combined in singles (six), doubles (10) and mixed doubles (four). - Won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at 1973 Wimbledon, one of three players to accomplish a Grand Slam Triple Crown in the Open Era (Court and Navratilova are the others). - Is one of just nine players in history to hold a singles title in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments, along with Court, Connolly, Fry, Graf, Hart, Evert, Navratilova and S.Williams. - Only woman to win the US singles title on four surfaces (grass, clay, carpet, hardcourts). - Oldest player to win professional Tour title by winning 1983 Birmingham at 39 years, 7 months, 23 days. - Unbeaten in 27 Fed Cup doubles matches and third in total wins (with 52); Captain of US Fed Cup team in 1995-96 and 1998-2001. - US Olympic women's tennis team captain in 1996 and 2000.

SINGLES Winner (67): 1968 - Wimbledon ; 1969 - Pacific Southwest, South African Open, Natal, Dublin, Stockholm; 1970 - Rome, Sydney, Durban, London Indoors, VS Richmond; 1971 - US Open , San Francisco, Long Beach, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, US Indoors-Detroit, Boston, San Diego, Hamburg [German Open], Hoylake, Kitzbuhel, Houston, US Clay Courts, Louisville, Phoenix, London Indoors; 1972 - Roland Garros , US Open , Wimbledon , Phoenix, Richmond, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Tucson, Charlotte, Bristol; 1973 - Wimbledon , Phoenix, Indianapolis, Denver, Nottingham, VS Hawaii, Tokyo [Toray]; 1974 - US Open , San Francisco, Washington DC, Detroit, Akron, US Indoors-New York; 1975 - Wimbledon , Sarasota; 1977 - Lionel San Antonio, Phoenix, San Paulo, San Juan, Japan Invitational, London Indoors; 1979 - Tokyo Sillook, Stockholm; 1980 - Detroit, Houston, Tokyo Sil

look; 1982 - Birmingham; 1983 - Birmingham.

DOUBLES Winner (101 Open Era): 1980 - US Open (w/Navratilova); 1979 - Wimbledon (w/Navratilova); 1978 - US Open (w/Navratilova); 1974 - US Open (w/Casals), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Casals); 1973 - Wimbledon (w/Casals); 1972 - Roland Garros (w/Stove), Wimbledon (w/Stove); 1971 - Wimbledon (w/Casals); 1970 - Wimbledon (w/Casals), Rome (w/Casals), Queen's Club (w/Casals); 1968 - Wimbledon (w/Casals), Winchester (w/Casals).

MIXED DOUBLES Winner (7 Open Era): 1976 - US Open (w/Dent); 1974 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson); 1973 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson), US Open (w/Davidson); 1971 - Wimbledon (w/Davidson), US Open (w/Davidson); 1970 - Roland Garros (w/Hewitt). ADDITIONAL Billie Jean King: 'It's not about the money. It's about the equality message' | Sport | The Guardian The G2 interview Billie Jean King: 'It's not about the money. It's about the equality message' The former tennis star, winner of 39 Grand Slam titles, talks about her fight for women players to get equal pay as well as her work for gay rights Sunday 23 June 2013 14.00 EDT First published on Sunday 23 June 2013 14.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close The night before the most watched match of Billie Jean King's career – which turned out to be the most watched match in tennis history – she called her brother, Randy.

She has no recollection of this phone call; she was deep in training at the time, completely, intensely focused. But Randy reminded her of it recently. It was September 1973, and not only was this match important, but a loss would mean irreparable damage to her reputation, to the women's tour that had started three years earlier, to the women's tennis association that had started three months earlier, to the legislation designed to end sexual discrimination in schools and colleges – and to the burgeoning, brilliant women's movement as a whole. Randy asked if she was going to win. "Go ahead and bet the house," she replied. It was this confidence and concentration that had taken King to the top. She was 29, and had already won 10 Grand Slam singles titles, including five at Wimbledon . Over the course of her career she would win 39 Grand Slam titles in singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. She was also deeply immersed in the drive for equality that would lead Sports Illustrated to declare, in 1975, that it was "very likely Billie Jean Moffitt King will go down in history as the most significant athlete of this century".

King is 69 now, and when we meet backstage at the One Show, where she is due to appear, she is full of beans, jumping from one idea and epiphany to another. One minute we are talking about microfinancing, the next about my mother; her years of mentoring young tennis players have clearly left her with as much interest in asking questions as answering them. We are here to talk about that defining match, dubbed The Battle of the Sexes, which has just become the subject of an excellent documentary of the same name. The film brings out all the tensions and colour of the time, prompting reflection on the inequalities that still persist. Billie Jean King is carried to the court by four men for the 1973 Battle of the Sexes match with Bobby Riggs. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS The idea for the match came from King's opponent, Bobby Riggs, who was 55. King had long been aware of him. She has always loved history, studied it at college, and as a kid she could recite all the Wimbledon winners, so knew he had won the triple crown in 1939, taking the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles.

That winning year at Wimbledon he bet on himself, parlaying $500 into $105,000. It was a practice he would keep up in the coming years, to the extent that his wife finally asked him to see a psychiatrist about his gambling. At their second session, he and the doctor started playing gin rummy. His wife filed for divorce; Riggs was dumbfounded. On the seniors circuit, he became known as a hustler – challenging tough opponents to tennis matches where he would handicap himself in an entertaining way, playing with a frying pan, for instance. Now he hit on a new wheeze. The women's movement that had been kicked off by Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique in 1963, continuing with the formation of the National Organisation for Women in 1966, was the talk of the US. At the Miss America protest in 1968, in Atlantic City, women dumped "instruments of female torture" including bras, false eyelashes and high heels into a bin marked "freedom trash can"; they also crowned a live sheep Miss America, to underline the way beauty pageants treated women as meat.

Feminism was headline news, and Riggs sniffed an opportunity. He started approaching the top women's players, dangling a big pay day as an inducement. King was the one he really wanted; he called her "the sex leader of the revolutionary pack". King recalls speaking to him around 1970, and merges seamlessly into an impression of his free-wheeling, wheedling style, her voice dropping an octave: "'Come on baby. Let's do it! Let's go! It's going to be exciting, people are going to like it, and we can make lots of money!'" She replied that she was exhausted, "and then I was thinking to myself too – what do I have to gain? He's as old as my father so, athletically speaking, it's nothing to me. OK, I beat a 55-year-old guy. Whoopee! And then, if I lose to a 55-year-old guy, Oh my God, I'll never forgive myself." She was thinking about the reputation of women's tennis as much as her own.

King had been playing on the national circuit since 1959, and had first played internationally, at Wimbledon, aged 17, in 1961. She was one of the players who pushed for the game to be "open" – for professionals and amateurs to be allowed to play in all competitions, together. The open era began in 1968, and having played in the big competitions for virtually no money before – when she won three titles at Wimbledon in 1967 she received a £45 gift voucher – she was delighted that she would be able to make a living. But then she realised that women players were to be paid much less than the men. When she won Wimbledon for the third time in 1968 she was paid £750. The men's winner, Rod Laver, took home £2,000. In other tournaments, the pay differential was even greater – the men would take 10, 11, 12 times the women's purse. And in many competitions, women weren't even given the chance to play. King knew that some of the male players were planning to form a professional organisation.

"You are going to include us, aren't you? she asked. "And they said: 'Absolutely not.' I said OK, but I went back to them more than once, and some of them said: 'Nobody would even pay a dime to watch you girls,'" – she pauses – "'you birds'. That was really not fun. And these are my friends, you know? I really loved them. I still love them today, but it was very heartbreaking." Billie Jean King with Bobby Riggs. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis They had to rebel. King and some of the other women players contacted Gladys Heldman, the influential founder of World Tennis magazine, and explained their situation; they decided to start a women's tour. This meant boycotting the tennis establishment. The US Lawn Tennis Association, as it was then, told them they would be suspended if they went ahead, and wouldn't be able to play in competitions including Wimbledon and the US Open. They decided to do it anyway. On 23 September 1970, nine women players – seven American, two Australian – were pictured holding the symbolic $1 they were being paid to join the tour.

They played anywhere they could draw a crowd – some of the venues didn't even have tennis balls. King knew they were taking a massive risk, she says. She wishes the other eight women received more recognition but, she says: "We were a team, and they chose me as a leader. They're the ones that pushed me into it, and then I embraced it, and once I embrace it – forget it! If I embrace something it's over, you know?! We were a team, and we helped each other, and every one of us had a very different personality, we were very opinionated, but what saved us is that we all had a good sense of humour. Woo! If we hadn't had that, I don't know what would have happened, because we could laugh at anything. If we were really hurting, we would just keep going." Next on the agenda for King was speaking to politicians about the legislation that would become Title IX, which passed into law in 1972, and stated that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education programme or activity receiving federal financial assistance".

This changed the lives of countless female athletes, who could suddenly receive the scholarships that King herself had been denied; she had to do two jobs throughout her college education, during which she was also competing internationally. The number of female college athletes has grown 622% since Title IX came into force, but it was an unpopular stance at the time, she says. "It wasn't fun. Everybody always says: 'Oh, you guys must have had so much fun!' We had some fun, because we had to, because we had to have a sense of humour. But no. It was rough man." Led by King, the women went on to found the Women's Tennis Association – a body that gave them one voice – in a secret meeting in London, during Wimbledon, in June 1973. Everything was going well, except for the continued nag of Riggs. On Mother's Day, May 1973, an event forced King's hand. Margaret Court, an Australian player who was King's greatest rival at the time, and who had kept herself away from the essential ferment of the feminist movement – "I am not carrying the banner for Women's Lib," she declared – agreed to Riggs's proposition.

At the start of the match, he presented her with a bunch of roses. She curtsied, to the horror of many women viewers. And then she allowed his style and braggadocio to rattle her. It took 57 minutes for Riggs to beat her 6-2, 6-1, in a match that became known as the Mother's Day Massacre. King knew if she left Riggs's victory hanging, critics would use it to ridicule the women's game for ever after. In some ways, the situation must have seemed like destiny. She grew up in Long Beach, California, the daughter of a firefighter, and was 11, she says, "when I decided I wanted to be number one. That was the second time that I played tennis. It was at the public parks, and I knew I'd found what I wanted to do with my life. By 12 I had an epiphany about trying to change tennis. Because I looked around and I saw that everyone who plays wears white socks, white shoes, a white tennis dress or shorts, and they're all white. My question to myself, as a 12-year-old, was: where is everybody else?

There are no people of colour. Something's not right." Later, as a teenager, she read Althea Gibson 's book, I Always Wanted to be Somebody. She learned that it wasn't until 1950 that a person of colour had played in what is now the US Open – Gibson had played that year, then won her first major in 1956, before winning Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958. King's understanding of inequality deepened at California State University, Los Angeles. There, at 18, she met a man called Larry King (not the broadcaster), who was a year younger than her; they married in 1965. He had been listening to her frustrations, and one day said to her: "'You're a second-class citizen.' And I go: 'What do you mean?' And he goes: 'Do you think you're a second-class citizen?' And I said: 'Yeah, actually, I am.' And he said: 'Because you're a girl.' And that day just solidified all these feelings I had bubbling up in me, all the things I'd been thinking and talking about.

He just made it simple, you know?" After Court's defeat, she agreed to play Riggs, and a great hoopla built up around the match. Riggs was a showman; one of his favourite T-shirts proclaimed "male chauvinist pig", another bore the acronym Worms: World Organisation for the Retention of Male Supremacy. He told reporters he was playing in defence of young men, who he claimed were being enslaved by women. "Guys are getting married, pretty soon they won't be able to get out once a week for a poker game, won't be able to go away for a weekend on duck-hunting trips," he said. "So I don't care about myself, but ... we've got to stop those women right now." The attention represented another threat for King. In the late 60s she had started to realise that she had feelings for women, and in 1969 she had asked Larry for a divorce. He refused on the basis that he still loved her. The lives of the pair were intertwined – they owned tennis tournaments together, began a women's sports magazine together – and she loved him too.

But she had also begun a relationship with her personal assistant, Marilyn Barnett, and was in terror of this being revealed. An onslaught of press attention was the last thing she needed. The match was played on 20 September 1973; men wore their male chauvinist pig T-shirts, women arrived with banners supporting Billie Jean. The worldwide TV audience was 100m. King was brought into the stadium on the shoulders of male athletes, while Riggs was wheeled in by the female models he called his "bosom buddies". They exchanged gifts. Riggs gave King a lollipop, while she presented him with a piglet sporting a pink bow. She knew that whether she won or lost, she would be remembered for this match for the rest of her life. She won, of course, in straight sets. It was one of the great spectacles of the women's liberation movement, featuring a woman who had always tried to argue much more subtly for equality. "You can see with my interviews back in those days, I was walking this tightrope to not alienate." She can speak more freely these days.

King was outed in 1981 when Barnett brought a palimony case against her; as one of the first openly gay athletes she lost all her endorsements overnight. She and Larry remained married until 1987, and friends after that – she is godmother to his children. In the years since, she has worked hard for gay rights, which she describes as the civil rights issue of the 21st century, "the first half anyway", and for women's rights. It is in large part her legacy that tennis is now the only sport in which men and women receive equal pay. "It's not about the money, it's about the message we send. We are sending the equality message out that this is the right thing to do. Yes, the men are better than us in some ways. Yes, we're better in some ways. It doesn't matter. Don't you want to share in this world? I do." King is the enthusiast who became an icon for civil rights; in 2009 she was awarded the presidential medal of freedom for her work for equality. She is sometimes called to speak to the Women's Tennis Association, she says, and she launches into the speech she gives to the women professionals today.

"Everyone's an influencer," she says. "It's not only what you do on the court – do you realise how you can affect people in your village, in your town, in your country, in this world? You have a platform that very few people will ever have ... You hit a tennis ball with a racquet over a little net, and just think what you can do with that, beyond trying to win Wimbledon." So speaks one who knows.

The Battle of The Sexes is in cinemas from 26 June Appointment of tennis great alongside hockey star Caitlin Cahow is equality message to Russia, which has enacted anti-gay laws Published: 17 Dec 2013 The Paralympic hero and TV presenter on his London childhood and becoming a basketball champion Published: 18 Aug 2013 WTA and Perform sign £340m contract that will double number of televised games and is being hailed as sporting milestone Published: 9 Dec 2014 Administration said that Russia's decision to grant Snowden asylum was only one factor in decision to cancel bilateral summit Published: 8 Aug 2013 Billie Jean King Billie Jean King 39-time major champion, 26-time finalist Open Era Titles Member of the U.S. Federation Cup Team 1963-1967, 1976-1979 Member of the U.S. Championship Federation Cup Team 1963, 1966-1967, 1976-1979 Captain of the U.S.

Federation Cup Team 1965, 1976, 1995-1996, 1998-2003 Captain of the U.S. Championship Federation Cup Team 1976, 1996, 1999, 2000 Overall Record: 52-4 Member of the U.S. Wightman Cup Team 1961-1967, 1970 Member of the U.S. Championship Wightman Cup Team 1961-1967, 1970 Connect with Billie Jean King BillieJeanKing Billie Jean King Citizenship: USA Born: November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California Played: Right-handed When it comes to selecting one memorable passage in the magnanimous career of Billie Jean King, which would you choose? The record 20 championships won at Wimbledon. Defeating Bobby Riggs in the famed Battle of the Sexes. The first woman in the history of sports to win $100,000 in a single year.

Being one of nine women to form the Virginia Slims tour. Becoming President of the Women’s Tennis Association. The first tennis player named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year and the first female to ever receive those honors. Being one of the first female athletes to disclose her homosexuality and champion LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights. The founder of Women’s Sports Magazine and the Women’s Sports Foundation. Time Magazine’s Woman of the Year. Having the site of the US Open renamed in her honor, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2009. Fact is, those highlights are but a thumbnail listing in the extraordinary life of Billie Jean King – both on and off the court. The depth of what she accomplished as a player and activist makes choosing one singular milestone impossible. Cumulatively, there have been few who have had a greater impact on their sport than King.

On March 2, 2015, CNN posted an article entitled “Leading Women,” which connected readers to “extraordinary women of our time, remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science, and more.” King was one of seven women profiled, along such immortals as author and anti-slavery campaigner Harriet Beecher Stowe, writer of Holocaust diary Anne Frank, and Rosalind Franklin, scientist that helped the understanding of DNA. In the article, King was noted for her 39 major titles and, not surprisingly, her victory over Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes match in 1973. What CNN focused on was the impact the Riggs match had for women’s equality as it played out before a worldwide television audience of 50 million. The facts that King helped form the Women’s Tennis Association and her tireless campaign for equal prize money for female players were also prominently cited.

There are two intertwined facets of King’s career – what she accomplished on the court as the third winningest female player in major tournament history and how her single-minded determination provided equal footing for not just women’s tennis players, but all women’s professional athletes. Outside of Margaret Court with 62 combined major championships and Martina Navratilova (59), no player in history won more majors than King (39). She won 12 singles titles, 16 women’s doubles and 11 mixed doubles champions. In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.” Not important sporting figures, important American figures. The only other sports figures recognized were Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad Ali. In the Open Era, King won eight major singles titles (7th best in history), appeared in 12 finals (9th), and 28 quarterfinals (9th). She won 129 singles titles, 62 as an amateur and 67 on the WTA Tour.

If you roll back the clock and combine King’s amateur and professional career, the numbers paint a picture of extraordinary success, though it took seven years to become a masterpiece. King made her major debut at the U.S. Nationals in 1959, but it wasn’t until 1966 that she won her first major championship, defeating Maria Bueno in the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Championship, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. King played in 51 majors from 1959 through 1983, advancing to the semifinals 27 times and the quarterfinals 40 times. She advanced to a major singles final 18 times, appeared in 29 doubles championship matches and 18 mixed doubles title matches. King’s singles victory at the French Open in 1972 over Evonne Goolagong, 6-3, 6-3, which up until that point was the only major singles championship that had eluded her, enabled her to win a Career Grand Slam, one of only five women at that time to achieve the feat.

King’s 1968 mixed doubles championship at the Australian added a Career Grand Slam in that category to her portfolio. Had she been able to win a women’s title in Melbourne (a finalist in 1965 and 1968), King would have won a Career Grand Slam in all three events. King’s story has been one of the most widely reported among sport’s greatest athletes. At age 5, while washing dishes, she told her mother, “I am going to do something great with my life.” And so she did. In 2009 she became the first female athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. In 1975, when her feverish major championship run ended, a readership poll in Seventeen magazine revealed that King was the most admired woman in the world. On New Year’s Day 1975, music icon Elton John released his No. 1 platinum hit “Philadelphia Freedom” in homage to his friend King and her World TeamTennis squad bearing same name. John was such a devout fan of that he would dress in the team’s uniform and sit on the bench during matches. King was a co-founder of World TeamTennis.

King was born Billie Jean Moffitt (she married lawyer Larry King in 1966) and raised in Long Beach, California. Unlike a lot of her fellow Hall of Famers who were born in less favorable outdoor locations and moved to California to hone their games, King was a local phenomenon, beginning her competitive play on Long Beach public courts before attending Long Beach Polytechnic High School and then California State University Los Angeles. The Moffitt family had plenty of athletic genes in the household, as brother Randy enjoyed an 11-year professional baseball career as a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays. King herself was a stalwart softball player. On August 7, 1960, King won her first tournament, defeating Carole Graebner at the Philadelphia and District Grass Court Championships in Philadelphia, 6-1, 6-0. She won her last on June 6, 1983 defeating Alycia Moulton, 6-0, 7-5 at the Edgbaston Cup in Birmingham, United Kingdom at age 39 years, 7 months, 23 days, then the oldest player on the WTA tour to win a title.

In between, she would be the world No. 1 ranked player six times (1966-1968, 1971, 1972, 1974). Her 1971 season was spectacular, winning 17 of 31 tournaments and compiling a 112-13 record. When she defeated longtime doubles partner Rosie Casals, 7-5, 6-1, at the Virginia Slims Thunderbird Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona on September 27, 1971, King became the first women’s player in history to earn $100,000 in prize money in a calendar year. For a career, King earned $1,966,487. King’s ascent on the record books, particularly the Wimbledon record books, began in 1961 as a 17-year-old. She teamed with Karen Hantze to win the Ladies Doubles Championship, 6-3, 6-4 over Aussies Jan Lehane and Margaret Court.

That victory jumpstarted King’s 20 career titles in London – six coming in singles (1968, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975), ten in doubles (1961, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971-73, 1979) and four in mixed doubles (1967, 1971-74). She shares the record for most titles at Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova. In her six singles victories, King defeated Maria Bueno (1966), Ann Haydon (1967), Judy Tegart (1968), Evonne Goolagong (1972, 1975), and Chris Evert (1973). King was a finalist in 1963, 1969, and 1970.

Overall, King was 96-15 at Wimbledon (.865), 31-15 against seeded players, and never lost to an unseeded player (65-0). She captured four U.S. Nationals/US Open titles, winning her first in 1967 over Jones, and three more after falling in the inaugural Open Era championship to Virginia Wade, 6-4, 6-2, in 1968. She defeated Casals in 1971, Kerry Melville in 1972, and Goolagong in 1974. Her lone Australian title came over Court in 1968. In her 12 major singles titles, King went three sets only twice, defeating Bueno for the 1966 Wimbledon title (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) and ousting Goolagong at the 1974 US Open (3-6, 6-3, 7-5). There was not one area of King’s game that shined more than any other. She was as complete an all-court player as the women’s game has ever seen.

She played aggressively, hit her ground strokes with a purpose, and was a tenacious net player. Her court speed was exceptional, and her competitiveness was the edge that earned her a 695-155 (82 percent) record in singles and an 87-37 mark in doubles. She’s the only woman in history to win U.S. singles title on all four surfaces it has been played on – grass, carpet, clay, and hard court. King’s all-court game made her an ideal doubles partner. Ten women’s doubles titles came at Wimbledon, five at the U.S. Nationals/US Open (1964, 1967, 1974, 1978, 1980), and one at the French (1972). She was a finalist twice in Australia (1965, 1969). Seven of her 16 titles came alongside fiery fellow Hall of Famer Rosie Casals, including three in New York, where King was a finalist seven times.

In mixed doubles, King won four times at Wimbledon (1967, 1971, 1973, 1974), four times at the U.S. Nationals/US Open (1967, 1971, 1973, 1976), twice at the French (1967, 1970), and once at the Australian (1968). She teamed with Aussie Owen Davidson to win eight of her 11 titles, four coming at Wimbledon. With the advent of the Open Era in 1968, King embarked on two of the three critical crusades that would define her career. In 1970, she was one of nine female tennis players, with steering from World Tennis magazine publisher Gladys Heldman, who sought to reduce the vast differences in prize money between male and female players. The result of their efforts was the formation of the Virginia Slims Circuit, sponsored by fellow Hall of Famer and Phillip Morris Chairman Joe Cullman, which later became the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

The nine players each signed a $1 dollar contract and embraced the catchy slogan “You’ve Come A Long Way Baby.” Her second bold statement came after she had won the 1972 US Open and had the bittersweet taste that her purse was $15,000 less than men’s champion Ilie Năstase. King emphatically proclaimed that if the prize money wasn’t equal the following year, she wouldn’t play and eluded that other women’s players would follow. In 1973 the US Open became the first of the four majors to have equal prize money for the men’s and women’s champions. It took courage and conviction to take such a stand. Seventeen years later, King would be the recipient of the 1999 Arthur Ashe Courage Award – her conviction as a risk taker and lobbyist for equality a major factor in her selection. The third and perhaps most significant watershed moment in King’s life came on September 20, 1973 in the famous Battle of the Sexes match against Bobby Riggs. King, then 29, was cajoled into playing the hustler Riggs, who won the 1939 Wimbledon Gentleman Singles championship.

King was seeking atonement for Riggs’s ambushing Margaret Court in the famous “Mother’s Day Massacre” 6-2, 6-1. Riggs hounded King with a $100,000 winner-take-all purse. Following his easy victory over Court, Riggs was overly cocky in preparing for King. He spent more time generating publicity and spouting off unfavorable comments directed toward women than he did training (Riggs trained much harder against Court). He appeared in photo shoots as Henry VIII, played a pre-King match in drag, and treated the whole event as though it was a Las Vegas comedy act based on tasteless one-liners. He rarely stepped on a court, and as a result was woefully out of shape and ironically unprepared when the match was played in the Houston Astrodome. King, meanwhile, was 36 years younger than Riggs and in the prime of her career. She trained relentlessly. Despite the differing preparations toward playing “The Battle of the Sexes,” legendary odds maker Jimmy the Greek tabbed Riggs a 5-2 favorite to win. Riggs rode into the Astrodome in a gilded rickshaw pulled by a bevy of beautiful women.

King entered the proceedings like Cleopatra, atop a gold litter held up by toga-wearing members of the Rice University men’s track team. She wore a specially-designed dress created by Ted Tinling, actually a backup option to the first that didn’t feel right to King. It was a menthol-green and sky blue outfit that King said “felt absolutely perfect when I put it on.” With Howard Cosell announcing, a record crowd of 30,492 spectators in attendance and a reported 50 million glued to their television sets, King dominated the match from the first point, quieting Riggs with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory. Years later, Riggs and Kings became friends, the remnants of Riggs’s pre-match hyperbole about women and their place in society forgiven. It was reported that the two spoke a few days before Riggs died of prostate cancer in 1995. King was a member of seven winning Fed Cup teams in 1963, 1966, 1967, and 1976 through 1979.

She compiled a 52-4 mark (26-3 in singles, 26-1 in doubles) and won her last 30 straight matches. King captained the team to four victories in 1976 (when she was a player-captain), 1996, 1999, and 2000. She was honored with the Fed Cup Award of Excellence in 2010. Throughout her career, the number of accolades, honors and tributes King has received are in the dozens. A few notable: In 1977, she was named by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as one of the “ten most powerful women in America.” She was an Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year selection in 1967 and 1973 and Sports Illustrated called her “probably the most influential athlete of her time.” King has been tennis’s most outspoken advocate on women’s rights, considered the figure most responsible for the growth of tennis in the United States and one of the sport’s most colorful and controversial players.

She has been widely considered as the role model for the 1972 passage of Title IX, which states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Writing in Sports Illustrated, Frank Deford penned, “She has prominently affected the way 50 percent of society thinks and feels about itself in the vast area of physical exercise. Moreover, like (Arnold) Palmer, she had made a whole sports boom because of the singular force of her presence.” In 1974 she wrote her autobiography, Billie Jean. Grand Slam Best Results 12 Singles | 16 Doubles | 11 Mixed Doubles Singles Billie Jean King - Tennis Player, Athlete - Biography.com Billie Jean King American tennis great Billie Jean King broke down barriers in her push for equal prize money for women, and as one of the first well-known openly gay athletes. IN THESE GROUPS “A champion is afraid of losing.

Everyone else is afraid of winning.” Billie Jean King Synopsis Born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, Billie Jean King became the top-ranked women's tennis player by 1967. In 1973, she formed the Women's Tennis Association and famously defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." The first prominent female athlete to admit her homosexuality, King continued her work as an influential social activist after retiring from tennis. Early Years Billie Jean Moffitt was born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, to parents Bill and Betty. The Moffitts were an athletic family: Bill was offered a tryout for an NBA team before becoming a firefighter, and Betty, a homemaker, was an excellent swimmer. Their second child, Randy, became a Major League Baseball pitcher. Billie Jean’s early sport was softball; at age 10, she played shortstop on a team of 14- and 15-year-old girls that won the city championship.

However, her parents suggested she try a more "ladylike" sport, and at age 11, she began to play tennis on the Long Beach public courts. Rise to No. 1 In 1958 Billie Jean emerged as a talent to watch when she won the Southern California championship for her age bracket, and in 1959 she started to receive coaching from former women's tennis great Alice Marble. After a series of losses to top-seeded players in various competitions around the country, in 1961 Billie Jean made sports headlines for the first time when she and Karen Hantze Susman became the youngest pair to win the Wimbledon women's doubles titles. While attending California State University, Los Angeles, from 1961 to 1964, Billie Jean continued to compete in tournaments and also worked as a tennis instructor to make ends meet. She also married law student Larry King during this time. However, after achieving mixed results in several of the competitions, Billie Jean soon realized that she would need to step up her practice schedule if she wanted to reach her full potential, and she embarked on an exhaustive training regimen and worked on sharpening her fundamentals.

Billie Jean King's efforts were finally rewarded in 1966, when she won her first major singles championship at Wimbledon. She went on to successfully defend that title in each of the following two years, and added her first U.S. Open singles championship in 1967 and her only Australian Open triumph the following year. In 1968, having claimed the world's No. 1 ranking in women's tennis, King turned professional. Renowned for her speed, net game and backhand shot, King was a regular presence in the winner's circle in singles, doubles and mixed-doubles tournaments over the next few years. In 1972, she won the U.S. Open, French Open, and Wimbledon to claim three Grand Slam titles in one year. Activist and Innovator Never shy about speaking her mind, King jolted the tennis establishment with her views that the sport needed to shed its country-club image and offer equal payouts to both genders. In 1970 she joined the brand-new Virginia Slims Tour for women, and in 1971 she became the first female athlete to top $100,000 in prize money in a single year.

But she simmered over the smaller paychecks earned by her peers. In 1973, King spearheaded the formation of the Women's Tennis Association. Leveraging her position as its most celebrated player, she threatened a boycott of the 1973 U.S. Open if the pay inequality was not addressed. Her demands met, the U.S. Open became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money to women and men. The following year, King and her husband founded the World TeamTennis co-ed circuit. As player-coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms, she was one of the first women to coach professional male athletes. Battle of the Sexes King's push for equality made her a prime target for Bobby Riggs , the 1939 men’s Wimbledon champion turned self-promoter. The 55-year-old Riggs had assumed an overtly chauvinistic public persona to bait the sport’s top women into playing him, and after he easily defeated multi-time champion Margaret Court in May 1973, he secured King as his next opponent. The "Battle of the Sexes" took place on September 20, 1973, at the Houston Astrodome.

Embracing the spectacle of the event, King entered the court in a gold litter carried by four muscular men, while Riggs rolled in on a rickshaw pulled by a team of women called "Bobby's Bosom Buddies." But King was all business once the match started, and she handily beat Riggs in straight sets before an estimated television audience of 50 million viewers. Afterward, King acknowledged the pressure she felt that day. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," she said. "It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self esteem." Later Tennis Career King announced her retirement from singles play after winning Wimbledon in 1975, but she resumed singles competition two years later and continued through 1983. In the meantime, she remained a force in doubles for many years, winning Wimbledon in 1979 and the U.S. Open in 1980. She continued to play WTA doubles matches sporadically, until retiring for good in 1990. Altogether, King won 39 major singles, doubles and mixed-doubles championships, including a record 20 at Wimbledon.

Off the Court and Post-Tennis King's private affairs were thrust into public view with a lawsuit brought by her former female personal assistant and lover in 1981. The first prominent woman athlete to admit her homosexuality, King lost her endorsements but became a torchbearer for the LGBT community. She divorced her husband in 1987, and settled into a long-term relationship with former player Ilana Kloss. "I didn't get comfortable in my own skin until I was 51 about being gay." Named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987, King remained closely tied to the sport throughout the 1990s as a television commentator. She also served as captain of the U.S. team at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2006, the New York City facility that hosts the U.S. Open was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in her honor. "That's the way I want the world to look: men and women working together, championing each other, helping each other, promoting each other -- we're all in this world together." King's accomplishments have gone beyond the world of tennis.

She has been honored by an array of organizations, notably earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. A board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation, which she formed during her playing days, she has also served as acting director for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the National AIDS Fund. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information Pioneer Billie Jean King championed equality in women's tennis - CNN.com Pioneer Billie Jean King championed equality in women's tennis By Paul Gittings, CNN Updated 1310 GMT (2110 HKT) November 19, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Inspiration for a generation Top award – President Barack Obama awarded Bille Jean King the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House in 2009. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Rising star – King made her tennis debut back in 1959.

Here, competing under her maiden name Moffitt, she plays a forehand volley during her Wimbledon semifinal in 1964. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Inspiration for a generation – King holds aloft the trophy after beating Ann Jones to win the women's singles title at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships in 1967. Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Inspiration for a generation – Billie Jean King with Bobby Riggs before the 'Battle of the Sexes' match in 1973. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Routed Riggs – The 55-year-old Bobby Riggs cuts a forlorn figure as he slips to defeat against King in the famous "Battle of the Sexes" at Houston in 1973. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Iconic match – Riggs and King embrace after the famous encounter in 1973. King won the match in straight sets.

Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Film double – Actress Holly Hunter played King in a special TV film based on the Riggs match, which had a $100,000 winner-takes-all prize. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Wightman wonders – King was the senior member of a powerful 1978 U.S. Wightman Cup team which also included Chris Evert and Tracey Austin. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Glittering prizes – King presents Maria Sharapova with a check for $1 million after the Russian superstar won the WTA Championships in 2004 -- beating Serena Wiliams in the final. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Star gathering – King is joined by Lindsay Davenport, Andy Roddick, Elton John, Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Tommy Haas and Jan-Michael Gambill at a World Team Tennis charity day.

Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Captain fantastic – King, in her role as captain of the United States Fed Cup team, gives a pep talk to Monica Seles during a 2000 tie against Belgium. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Inspiration for a generation Happy 40th – WTA founder King is flanked by Sharapova and Williams at a special gathering of former No. 1s to mark the organization's 40th anniversary. Hide Caption Billie Jean King is a 12-time grand slam singles champion American is a famed fighter for equality and women's rights She was the driving force behind the women's WTA Tour Founded the same year she beat Bobby Riggs in famous "Battle of the Sexes" When Serena Williams, winner of this year's women's singles title at the U.S. Open, picked up her check for $2.6 million -- buck for buck the same as the men's champion -- she might well have reflected that, if not for Billie Jean King's pioneering efforts, those riches might not exist. Supreme champion on the court, battler for equality off it, King took on the male-dominated tennis establishment and won.

She was the driving force behind the formation of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973, the same year she famously beat former men's grand slam champion Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" match in Houston. "Everybody should thank her and shake her hand," King's fellow tennis icon Chris Evert told CNN's Open Court . "She put money in our pockets and provided a living for hundreds and hundreds of female athletes. "Tennis is the frontrunner in all sports in equality, so she deserves all of the credit." 40th anniversary MUST WATCH Radwanska: Playing Serena was tough 04:36 Forty years on, King, who turns 70 in November, has been celebrating the WTA's anniversary in a series of events which defined the role of women not just in sport, but in society itself. The fledgling Virginia Slims tennis circuit for women professionals had been established at the start of the 1970s, but the leading players like King and Australian Margaret Court -- the all-time leading grand slam singles winner -- were still paid a fraction of the prize money available to their male counterparts.

The men had formed their own union -- the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1972 -- and King was convinced it needed to be replicated for women. Read: U.S. Open tennis fast facts Using her famous powers of persuasion, and with help from other key figures such as Dutchwoman Betty Stove, compatriots Rosie Casals and Nancy Ritchey and Britain's Ann Jones, a meeting was convened at the Gloucester Hotel in London, just before the Wimbledon championships. Within a few short hours, the articles of the association were signed and the WTA was born. Player power "We finally all came together as one voice and having the power of one -- you know just one group. It made such a difference," King told CNN. Martina Navratilova was then just starting out on her incredible career, and it was only later that she appreciated the significance of what had happened. "My first year playing -- 1973, my first Wimbledon -- I had no idea what the association was, but being American and being a bit older, Billie Jean again had the foresight to get us organized just in time," the Czechoslovakia-born Navratilova told CNN.

Read: Serena leads tributes to King on 40th anniversary Already an influential figure in the United States and helped by her then husband Larry, an astute lawyer, King had threatened to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open if equal prize money was not awarded. As defending champion, King had considerable leverage and the organizers gave in to her demands. When Court won the 1973 title she received the same prize purse -- $25,000 -- as the men's champion. Male chauvinism Kuznetsova's 2009 French Open win 01:14 But this concession was the exception rather than the rule in major sports. Such male chauvinism was personified by former Wimbledon champion Riggs, a shameless self publicist, who made a fortune from gambling on his own tennis matches. Seeing an opportunity to make more money, Riggs challenged both Court and King, claiming that even in middle age -- he was 55 -- he could beat the top women players.

Read: Wimbledon champ Bartoli quits at the top King ignored him at first, but Court took up the challenge and played him in a match in California on May 13, 1973. King had realized the significance of the occasion and had done her best to encourage the Australian to take it seriously. "I said, 'Margaret it's not a tennis match, it's about social change, it's about social justice, it's about all the things we're working for,' and she goes, 'I don't'. She wasn't politically orientated! Riggs match "So Margaret played him Mother's Day in 1973 and lost (6-1 6-2). it's called the Mother's Day massacre and I just thought, 'Oh no!' " King needed no second bidding, and the famous "Battle of the Sexes" match came to fruition on September 20 in the Houston Astrodome. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," said King.

"It would ruin the women's tour and affect the self esteem of all women." The entrances -- King on a gold litter in the style of Cleopatra, Riggs on a rickshaw pulled by women models in skimpy outfits -- added to the theater. Once the match started, King, at 29 and the peak of her powers, made her opponent eat his earlier words and boasts. With a winner-take-all $100,000 check riding on the outcome, Riggs lost his nerve and was beaten 6-4 6-3 6-3. Photos: Bartoli calls it quits Photos: Bartoli calls it quits Ends in tears – Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli made a shock decision to quit tennis after losing her opening match at the Cincinnati Open on August 14. Hide Caption 8 of 8 Iconic moment "The drop shot and volley heard around the world," said Britain's Times newspaper as an estimated global TV audience of 50 million watched the rout. King and Riggs embraced at the end, and became friends off the court until his death in 1995 of prostate cancer.

Prior to the WTA's formation, King had realized the significance of legislation passed through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by President Richard Nixon in June 1972. Read: Nadal up to No.2 with Cincinnati win; Serena beaten Title IX made it a requirement under law for male and female students to be afforded equal federal funding in their high school and college studies. "Before that, young women were not getting anything, there was gender quotas -- like 5% in the medical school at Harvard -- there were really terrible gender quotas and also women could not get an athletic scholarship in the States," said King. "Now because of Title IX, women from all over the world can go to our American colleges on a scholarship and get grants. It's very powerful because it's about equality in education and activities, and sports comes under activities." Quantum leap According to 18-time grand slam singles winner Navratilova, King took advantage of the mood of the moment to push through changes which were ahead of their time. "Billie Jean, she just pushed the clock forward, she sped up the process," Navratilova said.

"Any progress is measured by jumps, and that was one of those jumps that pushed the clock forward and allowed us to move forward as women athletes and to make a career out of it so it wasn't just a hobby. " Read: Navratilova's inspiring fight with cancer King was to play competitive singles for 10 more years after her 1973 heroics on and off the court, but injuries took their toll. Her final grand slam singles triumph came at Wimbledon in 1975, her sixth success on the grass at SW19, but victory in the women's doubles at the 1980 U.S. Open competed her set of 39 major titles overall. A firm believer in the team ethic, she played for and captained the U.S. in the Wightman and Federation Cup competitions, while King and her husband Larry were founding partners of World Team Tennis in 1974. Team ethic The format of that competition sees men and women playing a five-set competition in a mix of singles, doubles and mixed doubles. It has proved a successful formula, with the franchises playing to big crowds across the United States.

For King, the whole ethos of the event sums up her attitude to life and equality. "That's the way I want the world to look: men and women working together, championing each other, helping each other, promoting each other -- we're all in this world together," she said. Read: Serena beats Sharapova for French Open title The fight she started for equal prize money in the grand slams took 34 years to reach its fruition when Wimbledon became the last of the four to fall into line in 2007. "I remember the fight for prize money, I remember how many meetings were set, how many battles we had, and we all seemed to have stood by what we believed was right," Maria Sharapova told CNN when a unique meeting of former No. 1s gathered at Wimbledon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the WTA. Sharapova, who has become the highest earning female athlete in the world, acknowledged that she and the current leading players owe a lot to King. Grateful thanks "She had a big role obviously, there is a lot to be grateful for," she said. King shows no sign of slowing up, with her commitments to World Team Tennis and various foundations.

In 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and found out that President Barack Obama was a fan of hers from time she spent in Hawaii when he was young. Read: Obama presents 16 with Medal of Freedom "It's funny because he actually watched me practice at his high school. He told me when I met him for the first time," added King, who was honored for her work advocating for the rights of women and the lesbian and gay community. She was divorced from Larry King in 1987 and her current partner Ilana Kloss is a former professional on the WTA Tour. Life's goals Even as a precocious teenager on the public courts of Long Beach in California in the late 1950s, King had decided her priorities. "I had an epiphany about our sport. I really wanted to spend the rest of my life fighting for equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls, men and women," said King. "I always knew if I could ever be No. 1 in tennis, I'd have a platform." King has used that platform to great effect and the current No. 1, Serena Williams, remains her biggest fan.

Read: Counting China: Li Na moves up sporting rich list "Billie Jean has been my ultimate inspiration," Williams, who will start the defense of her U.S. Open title in New York next week, told CNN. "I had the honor of playing when she was Fed Cup captain and I learned so much from her. "Not just women's tennis but women's sport would be greatly diminished if it wasn't for Billie Jean." But it's been a journey that has taken its toll even on someone as outwardly tough as King. "I've stood up but I'm scared a lot. I'm really scared a lot," she revealed. "I felt very alone, very isolated at times but you know what -- I always felt like we were trying to do the right thing then I didn't care so much what people thought."

Question: What was US tennis player Billie Jean King’s maiden name?
Answer: Moffitt