Gods of Tennis

Episode 1

Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe

Sun, Jun 4, 202351 mins

Both Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe were well aware of their place in the annals of tennis history, in each wanting to change the status quo where white men were the focus of the sport. They, however, came to their activism from different backgrounds, King from a suburban middle class, and Ashe from a poor and segregated southern upbringing: while King had always supported Ashe's plight, he was a little less complimentary in return in indeed seeing that tennis should support men over women, men, led by Ashe, even fighting for more for themselves. For the Open era (i.e. when Wimbledon became a professional tournament with prize money in 1968), King saw equality as meaning equal pay for men and women. King and Ashe's parallel stories for social change are told during the start of the Open era in 1968 to the twilight of their careers in the 1975 Wimbledon championships, highlighted by milestones that started to converge their respective fights for change.