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 this installment, we look back on the moment that tennis' premier international team competition for women, the Fed Cup, changed its name to honor an icon.
Over the course of one week in June 1963, female tennis players representing 16 different countries converged on the Queen’s Club in London to—at long last—participate in the inaugural installment of an international women’s team event. The competition—dubbed the Federation Cup by the International Tennis Federation (ITF)—served as the long-awaited equivalent to the Davis Cup, which male players in the sport had been contesting since the turn of the century in 1900.
Given the demand from players at the time, the tournament attracted a who’s who of major talent right from the start, including Grand Slam champions Darlene Hard, Ann Jones, Billie Jean Moffitt (later, King) and Margaret Smith (later, Court). In the end, King helped an American contingent claim the first-ever Federation Cup title over an Australian squad led by Court, then the top player in the world.
“When I saw the trophy after we arrived, I told my longtime friends Darlene Hard and Carole Caldwell, ‘You guys, we have to win this because it’s history!’” King wrote in her 2021 biography, “All In”. “‘Every time we look at the trophy, we’ll be the first!’”
Fifty-sven years later—long after she created even more history by becoming the winningest Fed Cup participant ever, with five additional titles as a player, three as a captain and one as a player-captain—King saw her name permanently etched into the championship hardware one more time. In 2020, the ITF officially renamed the competition the Billie Jean King Cup in her honor.
The gesture, ITF president Dave Haggerty told media after the announcement, not only served to pay tribute to a living legend and champion of equality but also to provide some much-needed parity to the naming conventions in tennis.
“We feel it’s long overdue,” he said. “All major team competitions, including Davis Cup, are named after men, and we think it’s really fitting that the women’s World Cup of tennis would be named after someone as iconic as Billie Jean King, who changed the face of women’s sports.”
The change in nomenclature also helped to usher in another hugely significant achievement in regard to equality. A year prior to receiving the honor, King accepted a position as a global ambassador for the historic tournament. It was her association—and, then, her name—that helped the ITF acquire the appropriate sponsorships to, beginning in 2022, finally offer participants the same amount of prize money that the men competing in Davis Cup received.
A good 49 years after she achieved the same feat at the US Open, King had once again assisted in bridging the pay gap at another vaunted competition in the game.
Now, King is looking ahead. In “All In,” she wrote that “Fed Cup was already the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sports before it was named after me, but there are still many countries where women encounter huge obstacles to compete at all, let alone advance to the international level.”
She echoed that sentiment in her remarks during the announcement of the name change. She envisions a future in which athletes from all corners of the world receive the chance to create their own history at the Billie Jean King Cup—just as she did back in 1963.
“There is nothing quite like representing your country and being part of a team, which is why this competition is so special and important to me,” King said. “It is an honor to have the women’s world cup of tennis carry my name and a responsibility I will not take lightly. Our job is to share this vision with future generations of young girls, because if you can see it, you can be it.”
