What Makes Jean King Successful

Billie Jean King was an American tennis ace. In her career, she won many tennis matches, including 39 grand slam titles. Her first ever appearance at Wimbledon was whenever she was 17-years-old. Amongst her many successes, she also had some failures that helped pave the way for her to become one of the greats. She strived not only to be the best athlete she could be, but also for gender equality. King started her career at the age of 11, whenever her parents made her switch from softball, to a sport that was more suited for a lady. This was tough not only her, but her parents as well, because where she was from tennis was for wealthier families. Tennis was seen as a country club sport, and you had to be “rich” to play it. However, she overcame that stereotype and went on to be triumphant. She was very successful throughout her young career, winning different matches and going on to win the Wimbledon with Karen
The main disappointment she had was that she wasn’t treated equally as the men that played the same sport she did; she wanted respect. This disappointment didn’t just affect her, but all women that played the sport of tennis. The women’s side of tennis didn’t have a lot of fans, and the women weren’t getting paid the same amount as a man would have in their position. King spent a lot of time lobbying and things of that nature to help women across the sport gain respect. “In 1973, when Bobby Riggs, an aging tennis champ of the forties and fifties, declared that women would never play tennis as well as men could and challenged Billie Jean to a match” (Crokett, 2007). The match was coined the name “Battle of the Sexes”, because for Riggs it was a way for him to show his manliness, but for King it was a way for women across the tennis world to gain respect. King ended up winning the match, this was a major statement for women and the sport of