In “All In”, a perceptive autobiography, Billie Jean King looks back over her life and one of the 20th century’s great sporting careers. Between 1961 and 1979 she won six Wimbledon singles titles and 14 in doubles
Luckily for fans at the All England club, Ms King proved better at slicing backhands than at prophesy. Between 1961 and 1979 she won six Wimbledon singles titles and 14 in doubles in one of the 20th century’s great sporting careers. She never had children, and defended abortion rights with the example of her own terminated pregnancy. She did marry a man, but later emerged as a figurehead for gay rights.
In “All In”, a perceptive autobiography written with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers, Ms King notes that her youthful prediction reflected the stifling boundaries that hemmed in American girls in the 1950s. Few women had careers; professional women’s sports barely existed. When she began winning tennis trophies, first near home in California, then in Europe, she encountered shocking pay disparities.
Other indignities followed. Journalists focused on female athletes’ looks, not their achievements. Ms King refused to play to type and faced snide criticism. Her outspokenness was derided. Male stars offered no support, laughing off the notion that fans came for ladies’ matches.Open’s tournament director in 1972 with corporate funds in hand to bridge the prize gap. She vowed that most of the top women would not participate the following year if he refused.
Ms King’s highest-profile match was the “Battle of the Sexes” in 1973. Bobby Riggs, a loudmouth with hidebound views and a knack for publicity, challenged her to a friendly exhibition. She recognised the stakes and took care not to underestimate her opponent, studying his game and developing a plan to make the older man run. And run him she did, under the carnival lights of the Houston Astrodome, with 30,000 people cheering and 90m more tuning in at home.
True to its title, “All In” is bracingly candid. Alongside the sporting and political battles it tells of the eating disorder from which Ms King suffered, a sexual assault she experienced as a teenager and the whirlwind of being outed as a lesbian by a former lover in 1981. Ms King does nothing by half-measures—so much the better for readers, sport and the many women she encouraged and empowered.
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