It was a momentous milestone, brought about in no small part by an equally momentous champion, Billie Jean King. In 1973, the US Open became the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments to offer equal prize money to men and women competitors, a pioneering move that shook the sport and began to reshape it toward a more equitable future.
As we this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of this important US Open milestone, USOpen.org will feature a series of reflections upon other major markers of equality in tennis across this past half-century, each of which helped to nudge the sport forward toward the grand goal of a more level playing field for all. In the first installment, we look back on the trailblazing Original 9 and their act of defiance that paved the way for the modern-day WTA Tour.
Nine dollars went a long way in 1970 America.
It was enough to buy you 11 tubes of Crest toothpaste, 27 Morton frozen dinners, or a pair of tickets to the Ice Follies at Madison Square Garden (with special guest star Peggy Fleming). You could fill up your car and still have enough left over for an ice-cold Tab or two (gas went for an average of 36 cents per gallon).
Turns out $9 was also sufficient to launch a breakaway tennis tour.
On Sept. 23, 1970, nine athletes gathered in the suburban Houston living room of visionary World Tennis magazine editor/publisher Gladys Heldman, inking a contract to form the Virginia Slims Tour, the precursor to what is today known as the WTA. The group, led by a bespectacled 26-year-old who had honed her game on the public courts of Long Beach, Calif., Billie Jean King, was famously photographed around Heldman’s couch that afternoon, each woman holding up a ceremonial one-dollar bill.
Don’t let the grins fool you. This was an all-out act of defiance.
"WOMEN NET REBELS PLANNING OWN TOUR" blared the New York Times that week, notifying its readers that the gathering, which would become known as the Original 9, was putting its collective foot down and splitting from the long-established United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), no longer willing to ply their craft on an uneven playing field. The Jack Kramer-run Pacific Southwest Open, the 44th edition of which was being held that week at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, was offering the men’s field a purse eight times greater than that of the women.
That imbalance, deemed King, who carried some clout after winning three consecutive Wimbledon titles between 1966 and 1968, was simply unacceptable.
The walkout came with plenty of risk. King & Co. were going up against the establishment, after all. Many of their male counterparts, and even some of their female colleagues, wanted no part of the fight. There was a chance they would end up with nothing.
“We were very clear on our intent, also on our vision,” remembered the Hall of Famer King, whose name now adorns everything from the home of the US Open to the competition formerly known as Fed Cup. “We were willing to do anything to make that happen. I don’t think it would be the same as it is today if we hadn’t had the courage to do that.”
WATCH: In 2021, the US Open paid tribute to the Original 9 by presenting them with their rings commemorating their induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Today, the Hologic WTA Tour boasts more than 50 tournaments, in addition to the four Grand Slams (each of which now offers equal prize money), spanning six continents and nearly 30 countries. To think that King and Original 9 cohorts Rosie Casals, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey and Valerie Ziegenfuss were merely asking for an equal share of that $60,000 in prize money at the 1970 Pacific Southwest. Last year, Poland’s Iga Swiatek pocketed a $2.6 million check for winning the US Open women’s singles title, the same as men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.
The Original 9’s long-ago holdout continues to reverberate far beyond the confines of the tennis court, seeding the dreams of young athletes across the world, regardless of the sport. That $9 Heldman put up back in the fall of ‘70? It’s sure gone a long way.
