There are some figures in the history of sports that are just legendary. Not only concerning their victories, but also their lives are wrapped in an almost mythical halo and their records are not limited to the playing field. This is the case of Billie Jean King, an icon of the tennis world, a collector of infinite victories, a fierce feminist, a civil rights advocate and the protagonist of one of the most iconic matches of all time, also told in the film Battle of the Sexes, where she is portrayed by the shining Emma Stone.
THE TENNIST
Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943 in Longbeach, California.
Daughter of an housewife and a firefighter, her family was conservative but very attentive to sport and pushes Billie to play baseball and softball first, then tennis. What was essentially considered a lady-like pastime became a vocation for the young tennist who, still a child, set aside the money to buy her first racket and declared with absolute certainty that she would become "the best tennis player in the world". After graduating from high school, she enrolled in the state university of California but dropped out to devote herself full time to tennis, which actually became her life.
Billie thought that women's tennis, considered the time amateur in comparison to men's tennis, deserved greater consideration and strived strenuously for a fair wage: in 1972 she triumphed at the U.S. Open, where he won a 10,000 $ prize, while the male champion, Ilie Nastase, won 25,000$. So she threatened not to participate in the tournament the following year and thus managed to bring male and female wages to the same level, a record in tennis and sports.
In the years of triumphs and victories she realized her homosexuality, which became known to the public with an outing by her ex partner Marilyn Barnett in 1981, a huge scandal at the time. Billie experienced a turbulent period, torn between denial and fear of rejection by her family, but in 1987 she divorced her husband Larry King for her double partner Ilana Kloss. The two are still together till this day. Billie has received numerous accolades from LGBT+ organizations such as GLAAD, she's inducted into the Chicago and Lesbian Hall of Fame and has been an active member in associations fighting against AIDS.
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HER VICTORIES
Her triumphs are legendary: 12 singles slams, 16 doubles, 12 mixed, 4 U.S. Open wins, 6 in Wimbledon, one win in Australia and one at Roland Garros.
But even more legendary is the historic match, renamed Battle of the Sexes, which saw her engaged in 1973 against Bobbie Riggs.
Riggs, a former champion in the 30s and 40s, was a strong supporter of the superiority of men's tennis over women's tennis and he thought that he was able to beat the best female athletes of the moment. A convinced and declared male chauvinist (the audacity) he challenged and defeated the champion Margaret Court. Here comes Billie, who after rejecting the challenges of Riggs, accepts it and understands that she must win to send a message. Their game became an epochal event, one of the most watched matches on TV, with 50 million viewers in the United States and 90 in the rest of the world.
Billie Jean won for 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, playing with a style focused on attack, a fact that startled Riggs, then forced to play in a serve-and-volley style, unfamiliar to him.
A victory for sport but also and above for female equality.
In this regard Billie said: «I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match. It would ruin the women’s [tennis] tour and affect all women’s self-esteem. To beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill for me. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis». What a queen.
HER STYLE ON THE COURT
Billie Jean's most iconic accessory is undoubtedly her glasses. A classic over-size steel frame with round lenses, a model that has returned in style today. Back then where glasses were unjustly considered an uncool accessory (so unfair, four-eyes pride forever), Billie Jean has always considered them something precious, without which she could not have obtained her victories and in 2018 she participated in a advertising campaign for the Pearle Vision brand. She said: «My glasses not only helped me see the world more clearly, they gave me the confidence to pursue and achieve my dreams».
On the court Billie Jean preferred dresses to shirts with shorts, because as she said: «I had gotten used to wearing dresses and I thought I looked better in dresses».
An absolutely unforgettable dress is obviously the one worn during the Battle of the sexes. The garment was created by Ted Tinling, a designer who revolutionized the style of female tennis players between the 50s and 70s, creating eccentric and outrageous looks for the time, which followed the new freer and less restrictive fashion introduced by the feminist movements.
Tingling created for Billie, whom he affectionately called "Madame Superstar", two dresses, the first, in sparkling cellophane, a material never used for tennis suits, beautiful but too rough to wear (where this dress ended up, a mystery); the second, which would have been the chosen dress, was a nylon model, slightly flared, with a shirt collar and a decoration in shades of blue and mint green, combined with a pair of blue suede Adidas, the first shoes of a color other than white to be used on the tennis court.
A garment with a linear but luxurious and sparkling elegance (thanks to the rhinestones expertly sewn by Tinling) for a champion who has gone from being unable to afford a tennis outfit to shine on the playing courts.
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