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The Tennis Podcast: Billie Jean King on what would have happened with Battle of the Sexes defeat

The Tennis Podcast: image and logo
The Tennis Podcast: image and logo

Billie Jean King won 20 titles at Wimbledon in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and 39 Grand Slam titles in all, but she will be remembered more for her achievements off the court than on it.

Equal prize money between women and men at the biggest tournaments, an established women’s tennis tour, and global, instantly recognisable female stars are the result of her work and leadership, and she is as dedicated to making a difference at the age of 77 as she ever was.

In an interview with The Tennis Podcast, King talks about what was at stake in her 1973 Battle of the Sexes match against Bobby Riggs, when more than 30,000 people packed into the Houston Astrodome and 90 million people watched around the world. What if she had lost? King tells podcast host Catherine Whitaker that she knew the landscape of professional tennis, and indeed sport and society, might have looked very different for many years to come.

Over nearly two hours, King discusses the strategy she and her contempories employed to pursue equal prize money, her wish that tennis fans, players and media would learn more about the history of the sport to better understand the present, and her optimism for the future.

The Tennis Podcast is produced twice weekly, and daily at the Grand Slam tournaments.

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