dpWhen Billie Jean King was 10 years old, she picked up a tennis racket for the first time and told her mother, Betty Moffitt, “I know what I’m going to do with my life.” She wanted to play tennis, first and foremost. But moreover, she wanted to become the world No. 1, and later on, was motivated to pursue larger ambitions: campaigning to elevate women’s tennis.
The latter goal necessitated the former, though. On July 2, 1966, King won Wimbledon, her first major singles title, kickstarting it all.
“This 1966 win really started all of that in my mind because I knew I was going to be No. 1, and when you’re No. 1, people listen better and more, which could help the cause,” King said in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
This year’s Wimbledon tournament marks 60 years since King won her first of 12 major singles titles. King says the 1966 win was a “huge turning point” in her career because she finally secured a platform to raise concerns about the conditions of women’s tennis and women’s sports in general.
Without King’s leadership and perseverance early in her career, women’s sports wouldn’t be what it is today. Women have their own sports leagues, thanks in part to King, and fans show up to watch women’s games in person and tune in at home on television. King helped broadcast women’s sports to a wider audience, and she’s known as a trailblazer—if not the trailblazer—because of her hard work.
Winning Wimbledon in 1966 didn’t spark that drive to change the game for King. That fire had been in her since she was a kid playing basketball with her dad and observing the disparities in men’s and women’s sports. But, King does look at her 1966 Wimbledon win as inspiration to fully begin her activism.
It’s somewhat ironic that King’s lifelong dedication to promoting equality in tennis started at Wimbledon, the major tournament known for being the most exclusive and traditional of the four grand slams. The contrast is stark between King’s push for change and the steady standards at Wimbledon.
“[Wimbledon’s] the epitome of everything I love and everything I don’t like. Because I’m very big on inclusion, but I like tradition. I always appreciate it,” King says. “But, innovation and learning to keep moving things forward is really important.”
King’s influence will forever impact the game of tennis. Just recently, some of the top players in the world—like Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff—have discussed boycotting future grand slam tournaments because of an unfair share of revenue at this year’s French Open. The players are hoping the prize money pool equates to 22% of the overall major tournament revenue like it does at ATP and WTA combined 1000 events. However, this year’s Roland Garros prize money pool equaled about 14.3% of the overall projected revenue.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said players could boycott Grand Slams if they do not receive a bigger share of revenue 🚫🏆 pic.twitter.com/Uxz5TdwY6A
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) May 6, 2026
This fight is reminiscent of the battles King fought in tennis 50-plus years ago. If it wasn’t for King paving the way for tennis players to argue for themselves to earn the money they wish for, then who knows if the players would have the same confidence to advocate for themselves today.
What makes the current struggle different from what King endured starts with the top players in the world having an even bigger platform and respect amongst the sport, while King had to advocate for herself and her fellow players to even initiate changes. Today, there will be more pressure from fans to force the tournaments to make a move as they can campaign with the players through social media or through revenue shifts. King fought a public battle, but time and history helped elevate her story to the world in the years following rather than in the present.
It still encourages King to see the players standing up for what they believe in, even if it is frustrating for the rest of us to watch the players still deal with these battles.
“It makes me very happy that the men and women are united on this, and I think that will drive change,” King says. “It’s not just a prize money issue. It’s having a seat at the table with the four major tournaments to discuss multiple points. At the center of the discussion is the push for an increased share of the revenue so that the level of revenue the players receive from the majors matches the current level they earn from the 1000 level tournaments.”
The campaign seems to be working more in the tennis players’ favor now. Wimbledon increased its prize money pool by 10 million pounds this year. The players had argued for 16% of the overall revenue, but the tournament settled for 14.4%, per The Guardian. Players decided to not conduct a media boycott at Wimbledon this year after undergoing various meetings with the tournament heads, The Guardian reported on June 29. This is proof that standing up for what you believe in will most likely make a difference.
And, to think, King likely inspired these players to even take a stand in the first place.
King will be attending Wimbledon this year for the 64th time in her life. She first attended in 1961, when she won her first major women’s doubles title there. The only year she hasn’t gone since then was in 2020, when the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In those 60 years since King won her first Wimbledon singles title, she’s made a massive impact on the sport, that much is for certain. But, it was nostalgic for her to look back at that 1966 win specifically, as King doesn’t always talk about her tennis titles nowadays.
Heading into the 1966 tournament was especially thrilling for King as she felt ready to win the title and become the No. 1 player in the world.
“[That year, I told myself] I have to win my first Wimbledon,” King says. “In those days, you had to win Wimbledon if you’re going to be No. 1. So, now we’re at Wimbledon and I had been really lucky. I’m playing better. I made my commitment, I’m not in school so I can play every day and go around the world and play.”
On her path to playing in the Wimbledon final, she beat Margaret Court in the semifinals before defeating Maria Bueno in the final to capture her first major singles trophy. Now, at 82 years old, she can still remember how satisfying it was to land the final iconic shot.
“The last volley that I hit, which that’s what they show because it’s match point, was actually a perfect volley. It went exactly where I wanted it,” King says.
Sure, the facts of King’s career are well-known and taught in sports history, but in case you haven’t been graced with her incredible resume, here’s a reminder of some of the biggest impacts King made in tennis. All of the strides King made in the sport directly influenced how we watch tennis today, no big deal.
When King won Wimbledon in 1966, tennis players were still seen as “amateurs” and not “professionals”—this felt wrong to King. Tennis needed to be recognized as a professional sport like other international sports at the time, but it was no easy task.
“I had a lot going on in my head,” King says. “I just knew it was a beginning when I won Wimbledon, in so many ways. Being No. 1 for the first time, but also, ‘How can we help the sport be professional and not amateur?’”
After years of fighting for tennis to recognize professionals, the players finally saw this change at the 1968 French Open, which marked 91 years after the first Wimbledon tournament. This significant shift established the start of the Open Era of tennis.
King went on to win her third-consecutive Wimbledon title in 1968, but there was another issue at hand. She earned 750 pounds for winning the title, while the men’s champion Rod Laver won 2,000 pounds. This huge discrepancy forced King to shift her focus to establishing a women’s tennis professional tour and to acquire equal prize money amongst men and women.
It took a few years for both of these dreams to be achieved, but King drove the campaigns to make both of these monumental changes happen. She was a member of the Original 9 in 1970, then became the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a season on the Virginia Slims Circuit (which predates the WTA) in ‘71. Two years later, King founded the WTA with 60 professional women’s players. In that same year, King led the charge for the U.S. Open to give out equal prize money to the men’s and women’s champions.
“I wanted us to be pro athletes, because being pro meant you were the best of the best,” King says. “My activism ramped up off the court leading to 1968 and went to another level as we fought for an equal share of the prize money, which didn’t happen until the 1973 U.S. Open.”
Seeing the legendary player and activist in the seats at Centre Court at Wimbledon every year serves as a reminder of how impactful King will always be on the sport. Sure, there likely would’ve been other leaders to push for change in women’s tennis down the road, but King made sure to focus most of her career on improving the game to result in how the audience consumes tennis today. Winning her first Wimbledon title in 1966 allowed her to initiate the movement as early as she could. Tennis history would look completely different without King’s everlasting influence.
King says she is in disbelief that the win that kickstarted so much of her activism and tennis success was 60 years ago. For those waiting in the wings to make change, King has some advice.
“Life goes really fast, do what you want,” King says. “Be fearless, go for it. I went for it, I put myself out there, and I like pressure.”
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