Court vs King

These two rivals were very different from each other. They played each other through the 60s and 70s, but despite respecting each others games they never became friends. They were politically and psychologically very different.

They were great players and led in terms of prize money for their times.

Margaret Court

Margaret Court was born in Albury, NSW, Australia in 1942. She was always deeply religious and shy. She married at 25 and had 4 children. Her husband’s brother and father were Premiers of Western Australia on the Conservative side. Margaret thought Billie Jean was lacking in class and was a loud mouth. She criticized Martina Navratilova saying that because she was gay (Martina that is) she was not a good role model for tennis. Court was socially very conservative. She and King only met at the net to shake hands. Martina said that Court only ever said 3 words to her.

What Court did to revolutionize tennis though was to be very fit and she had a power game which overcame most other players for many years. She trained on court but also off it with weights, skipping ropes, and running. Her arms too were 3 inches longer than is usual for people so her wing spam at the net was huge. In mixed doubles men did not shield her at all.

She also won a Grand Slam in 1970. Only 2 other women have ever done this. Steffi Graf was one of them. So what ever we might think of Court as a person one has to admire her tennis ability. She also went back to tennis after having babies which very few female tennis players do.

She won 62 Grand Slam titles (with 24 of them being in singles). Both of these statistics remain records.

Margaret began by winning the Australian national title at 17 in 1960. This was to become the Australian Open. She was the youngest winner and progressed to be a world class tennis player. She won this same event 11 more times. It was still amateur tennis at this stage. Court didn’t travel overseas for events until the following year.

Billie Jean King

Billie could not have been more different from Court and though she had a great game she probably couldn’t be compared with Court. She grew up in swinging California having been born in Long Beach in 1943. She was a leader, loved competing and was opinionated.

She married young, but the marriage became one of convenience as Billie decided she was a lesbian and was known to have had an abortion. She fought for women’s rights. She certainly wasn’t socially conservative.

Billie Jean had a serve volley game and as she was short, couldn’t win from the baseline in long rallies. She had a good serve and used a lot of spin.

In 1971 she became the first women to win $100,000 in prize money for a year. She deserved it though as she had fought for better prize money for women and held many positions in tennis organizations. She was recognized for this work by the WTA naming the end of year championships trophy after her.

Both Billie Jean and Margaret Court played Bobby Riggs who was known as a chauvinist pig. He had been a tennis player and kept baiting the women to play. Court lost to him, but Billie Jean King beat him. The games were played in completely different spirits though. King had a point to make and there was much fanfare around the world about the match. The result showed the temperaments in the two women, rather than their lesser or otherwise talent compared with Riggs. It was said that Court lost her nerve while King was always known to be rock solid.

Wimbledon 1970

The match they have been remembered for was the Wimbledon Singles finals in 1970. King was in her prime having won Wimbledon in 1967 and 68 and would win it again in 72, 73 and 75. Court was playing the third rung in her eventual Grand Slam in that year. Court won 14-12, 11-9. There were no tie-breakers then. It remains the longest women’s singles final ever played at Wimbledon. The first set, going to deuce many times, was the longest set played by either men of women in a Wimbledon final.

Their records

Margaret Court won 92 singles and 48 doubles titles. She won 24 singles Grand Slams.
Billie Jean won 67 singles titles and 101 doubles. She won 13 singles Grand Slams.

Head to heads in Grand Slams

Australian Open: Court won 1 and Billie Jean won 1.
Wimbledon: Court won 3 out of 5 between them
US Open they won one apiece.
In Federation Cup Court beat King twice.
Both have been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame: Court in 1979 and King in 1987.