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It was 1874, the sun was shining and American-born Mary Ewing Outerbridge was on vacation in Bermuda. During this trip to the tropical island she discovered the game of lawn tennis.
Played in England since the late 1700s, the game was introduced into Bermuda and other British colonies by British officials and their wives. It was considered to be quite a proper pastime for young ladies. They could turn up for their garden parties, and when the call came: "Anyone for tennis?" they could walk smartly onto court, just as they were.
Outerbridge bought equipment for the game in Bermuda and brought it home to Staten Island, New York, where she introduced the game to her friends. Her brother was the director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, and, seeing the growing popularity of this game, he added a lawn tennis court.
It didn't take long before the US Open was born.
Rise of the ladies
In 1887, six years after the first men's nationals were held, the first official US women's national singles championship was held. The winner was Ellen Hansell. Wimbledon had already been around for some years. In 1884, the All England Club added Ladies' singles and the first female tennis player to walk away with the title was Maud Watson. Maud is said to have provoked much gossip by running about the court in her ankle-length white dress, driving and volleying with expertise.
But it was a woman named Helen Wills Moody who could arguably be the most dominant tennis player of the 20th century and perhaps the first American-born woman to become an international celebrity as an athlete. She was known as Little Miss Poker Face for her dispassionate on-court behaviour. Wills, who never appeared for a match without her signature stark white visor, won 31 Grand Slam titles in her 15 years of competition. She held the No 1 world ranking for eight years and did not lose a single set while amassing a 180-match winning streak from 1927 to 1933.
Civil rights
Not only were women fighting for equality, African Americans and immigrants were having problems of their own. They were usually excluded from tennis in the US during the early stages. One young girl named Althea Gibson lived in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s. Her family was on welfare. She had trouble in school and ran away from home frequently.
Gibson became a member of the Harlem Cosmopolitan Tennis Club, a club for African American players, through donations raised for her membership and lessons. She was offered an opportunity to develop her talents more fully when a wealthy businessman opened his home to her and supported her in attending an industrial high school, while studying tennis privately.
Gibson won the ATA women's singles tournament for 10 years in a row from 1947 through to 1956. But tennis tournaments outside the ATA remained closed to her, until 1950. In that year white tennis player Alice Marble wrote an article in American Lawn Tennis magazine, noting that this excellent player was not able to participate in the better-known championships, for no reason other than "bigotry".
Winning streak
And so later that year, Gibson entered the Forest Hills, New York, national grass court championship, the first African American player of either sex to be allowed to enter.
Gibson then became the first African American invited to enter Wimbledon, playing there in 1951. In 1956, she won the French Open. In 1957 she won the women's singles and doubles at Wimbledon. In 1958 she again won both Wimbledon titles and repeated the Forest Hills women's singles win.
'Every shot'
Match points for or against Helen Wills Moody, often passed her by unnoticed — a product of her legendary concentration. According to her biographer Larry Engelman, she adhered to a simple mantra during the match: "Every shot, every shot, every shot."
Billie Jean Moffitt, also known as Billie Jean King, is a legend when it comes to women's tennis. After her first tennis lesson at age 11, Billie Jean Moffitt told her mother, "I want to play tennis forever. I'm going to be No 1 in the world." And indeed she was.
For more than 20 years, until she retired from active playing in 1984, King won 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 US Open titles, the French Open, the Australian Open and 29 Virginia Slims singles titles. She was ranked the No 1 player seven times between 1966 and 1974. King's drive turned women's tennis into a major professional sport.
Outraged at the disparity between men and women's prizes at major tournaments, King spearheaded the drive for equal prize money and equal treatment for women.
The King
Billie Jean King was the first woman athlete to earn more than $100,000 (Dh367,300) in a single year.
She founded the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation.
King became the first woman commissioner in professional sports history.
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