AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2023

The Original Nine

Press Conference

CHANDA RUBIN: Welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining us for this panel discussion, highlighting and celebrating the Original Nine, the women of the Original Nine.

Firstly, I want to say that I'm absolutely thrilled and honored to be here. Growing up as a little black girl in Louisiana, I began playing tennis in the '70s. As I began to dream of what I could accomplish in the sport, what I could accomplish as a pro, it was because of you all that I have had and I continue to have the opportunities to make a living, to be a part of this sport that I love.

I truly, truly thank you, first and foremost. (Applause.)

BILLIE JEAN KING: You're a great role model. We're lucky to have you.

CHANDA RUBIN: Thank you.

I want to set the stage because I know all of you are ready to speak and tell your stories so we are clear on how women's professional tennis evolved.

In 1968, the Open Era of tennis began and women were able to compete but were making a fraction of what the men earned.

In 1970 the nine of you, that includes Julie Heldman and Nancy Richey, who aren't here, the nine of you decided to take a stand.

This resulted in the famous $1 contract with magazine publisher Gladys Heldman and marked the birth of women's professional tennis.

Did I get that right?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Yes, you did. Perfect.

CHANDA RUBIN: I want to start the questions. I want to start with you, Valerie. You all were in the prime of your careers when you decided to take this stand. It was a very real thought of negative repercussions, not knowing what may come as a result.

Back in the beginning, was there a sense of nervousness about how things might turn out?

VALERIE ZIEGENFUSS: There was a sense of nervousness. But on the other hand there was a sense of excitement because of the people involved.

I thought, How could we miss? We had a fabulous leader in Billie Jean King. We had a wonderful promoter in Gladys Heldman who knew everybody and organized the tournaments. We had a fabulous sponsor in Joe Coleman, CEO of Philip Morris.

Nervous because we went against the establishment, but also I just had such belief in Billie Jean and in our product. You know, women's tennis, we always had feedback, I love to watch you girls play, your rallies are longer. We had tremendous feedback that our product was good and entertaining, that people would catch on and come out and pay to see us play.

CHANDA RUBIN: Thank you so much.

I have to say I'm from the South, so I have to address you a little more formally.

I want to say, Miss Peaches Bartkowicz, I want to ask you the next question. You've talked a good bit about the bond that you all share, that you all are like sisters. On the rare occasions when you all are able to get together like this, do you look back at what happened? Do you reminisce? Do you look at where things are now?

PEACHES BARTKOWICZ: Well, I reminisce all the time, especially when I see the players on TV, what they're doing, how it's changed. When the opportunity comes, I'm always willing to come here. I love to come see my gals.

They are sisters to me. They take care of me, because I'm the one with all the health issues. I'm just glad to see, people always say to me, Too bad you didn't play when the money was really good. Look what they're making now. But it's good to see what they are doing now.

CHANDA RUBIN: So much of that is because of you all, so thank you again.

I want to next go to Miss Kristy Pigeon. I've tried to do a little research. I love power players. You were a power player. You also were balancing your college studies, and add to it helping to start this new circuit.

To have all of you in the room together, with the backdrop of this major tournament where women can showcase their power and their skills, how does it feel to have been a part of creating those opportunities?

KRISTY PIGEON: Being a part of what we did for me was a total no-brainer. I never even gave it another thought. I'd been influenced at university by people like Betty Friedan and others in Berkeley, California, where I was blessed to practice with Billie Jean. She kind of took me under her thumb, so I always looked up after her.

Not that I always did what she said. I disagree with her on quite a few things (laughter), but having that college atmosphere just said, Hey, yes, you're doing the right thing, this needs to happen and it needs to keep happening.

CHANDA RUBIN: Love that. Thank you.

Next I'm going to go to Miss Rosie Casals. You won the very first tournament of this new tournament circuit in Houston. You played Miss Judy Dalton in the final. You won the very first tournament.

When you look at the women's game now, how far it has come because of all of you, how does it resonate with you in terms of being a part of creating all these opportunities?

ROSIE CASALS: Well, it tells me that we made the right decision. Having thought about what is going to happen, the future, Billie Jean talking about the future and how important things were to unite, we had to do what we did.

Yeah, it's great to see what's going on, the prize money, the fact that we made a great decision because women's tennis wouldn't be where it is. Obviously it's always nice to be with the girls and talk about, yeah, we did, Valerie had a whole page she was talking about. She beat Kerry, she beat the old lady, she beat me (laughter). She said, I don't remember that.

So, yeah. We try and remember things, but not quite accurately sometimes.

CHANDA RUBIN: You remember when you get the wins.

ROSIE CASALS: I remember beating her, though (laughter). Those three long sets. I really was lucky.

BILLIE JEAN KING: You remember all that?

ROSIE CASALS: I just read the book (laughter).

CHANDA RUBIN: Love that.

I'm going to go next to Miss Kerry Melville Reid. It's a pleasure to meet you, not having officially met before.

At this time you already were one of the top-10 players. You took this stand. Initially you all dealt with being banned from some events. Now you all are going to be honored at the luncheon tomorrow.

I'm curious, how does it feel when you come back to Australia to be celebrated, to be recognized? How does that feel to be a part of this kind of event?

KERRY MELVILLE REID: Well, it's really great. It's always great to come back to Australia. That is really nice to be honored like that, too.

BILLIE JEAN KING: You get to see your brothers, too, right?

KERRY MELVILLE REID: I forgot about that little thing. I've got two brothers that live here.

BILLIE JEAN KING: She's the baby.

KERRY MELVILLE REID: I haven't seen them in eight years, so I'm going to see them in the next few days. It's always great to see them, see all the family, the grandkids and everything. It's always great to come back to Australia. I love it.

CHANDA RUBIN: I'm going to go next to Miss Judy Dalton. You got to that first final, Rosie is kind of pointing at you. You were such an instrumental figure already on the tour. When you think about yourself as a trailblazer, coming and being recognized here, you continue to see the transformative results of your actions, how do you feel when you see everything that's going on around women's tennis these days?

JUDY DALTON: I feel very proud. I think we did a fantastic job. I don't know whether we all really realize what an effect we had. We hoped that we would have a terrific effect, but I'm not sure we realized it would be as great as what it was.

I think we achieved that probably because of companionship and camaraderie, helping each other, because that's what we had to do. It was the only way we could do it.

Tub and I were really in big trouble in Tennis Australia, we couldn't do anything. So to come back and to see everybody is wonderful. But to at least be part of it now, to at least sometimes be able to sit in the front row is rather nice. Could never do that before (smiling).

From that point of view, I think it's fantastic because it was a hard ride but it was a wonderful one. It was a very worthwhile one.

CHANDA RUBIN: Amazing you all took that road, again in the midst of your careers when it's so much about focusing on yourselves, you guys came together collectively. Amazing.

My last question is going to be directed at Miss Billie.

BILLIE JEAN KING: You're such a Louisiana girl.

CHANDA RUBIN: Yes, my mom would be slapping my wrists if I didn't (smiling).

Miss Billie, if we consider the contracts signed by the Original Nine in 1970 as marking the birth of professional women's tennis, the formation of the WTA in 1973 marked the coming together of professional women's tennis players for a common good and a collective voice.

My question to you, the WTA Tour is turning 50 this year, which is an amazing milestone, and a lot of this goes down to your hard work, the work of all of you collectively. How do you feel when you see the progress? I know you're going to say you want more.

BILLIE JEAN KING: You know me well.

CHANDA RUBIN: How do you feel when you see the progress, you see all of the positive transformations that have taken place in this game for women?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I want to be really clear, because it gets confusing. They put the Original Nine, what we did in 1970, with the WTA in '73, they're separate issues. Because the media is here, so make it easier on you to understand better.

The three things as the Original Nine, when we dreamed about a tour, dreamed about equal prize money, many years, we were thinking it would take a long time. There's three things that we thought about with the Original Nine.

That was that any girl in this world, if she were good enough, would have a place to compete. Not play, but compete.

Number two, to be appreciated for our accomplishments, not only our looks.

And number three, really important, to be able to make a living in tennis, the sport we had such a passion to play. That's why we were there. As amateurs we used to get $14 a day. You can imagine, sitting there, if you made $14 a day, that we really wanted this. We wanted it for the future generations. We knew if we did well, it would help us a little. The real happenings were going to be to the later generations.

Judy and Kerry took a huge hit. What first happened when we announced we're going to be together and try this and have this dream, dream it, build it, well, we're in the dream stage. They were the first two to be suspended. Australia said, Don't come home, you're never going to play here again.

They took the hit first. Later, because we're all U.S. besides the two of them, we also got suspended, then we got reinstated, suspended. I mean, it was a nightmare. It was really scary. I was really scared. But I think kept thinking about the future.

Then the WTA, we had two tours for a while. I kept yelling, We have to be together, we have to have one voice.

Everybody is going, Okay, okay, okay.

I said, Each one of us have to recruit players, otherwise we won't make this happen.

1973, June 21st, about three or four days before Wimbledon, everybody, 63 players were at the Gloucester Hotel. Because of the work of everybody here and others, we got 63 players. We didn't know if anybody was going to show up. We knew we would show up, but we didn't know if any others were going to show up.

They did. Everyone in the room, all 63, voted to have a Women's Tennis Association. We didn't have a name yet, by the way. It wasn't called anything. We were just going to have an association.

The reason it's not a union is because we're independent contractors. I wanted to be a union. Our lawyers said, No.

I said, Well, what can we be?

They said, An association.

That's why it's an association. Tried to get the men together with us in the '60s, late '60s. They said no. The ATP was formed in September of '72.

Anyway, we did it on our own. Personally, I wouldn't talk for everybody else, but I wanted us always to be together, the men and women. I thought we could be much more powerful on and off the court, make the world a better place.

When the WTA was formed, there were two tours before that, and with that, everybody came together in early 1973. I knew it was possible for us to make it, for the WTA.

But the real dream for us is that we really wanted the future generations to have a go. We started in the U.S. Our first tournament outside the U.S. I think was in London. Bio-Strath or something? Was that the first one?

JUDY DALTON: Yeah. It was a health mixture, did wonderful things for us. I don't know whether it did, but anyway.

BILLIE JEAN KING: That was an exciting time to have that tournament. Now we're worldwide. That was always a dream, to be worldwide.

But the dream was always that we would have this opportunity, the future generations would have the opportunity. It's very clear now, if you know the history, they're living our dream. So every time they do well...

Every time a woman player gets a check, any time, any level of tournament, it's because of that day in 1970, okay? So we are very relevant, what we did in 1970, to today.

Nobody knows our history. Nobody knows anything. I don't know what you all think, but every time I see a player get a check, an ITF, a smaller WTA event, doesn't matter, the majors, all of them, if we hadn't had that day, it would not be happening. I hope that helps you figure out why this is such an important celebration.

CHANDA RUBIN: Absolutely. Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHANDA RUBIN: So many women are living your dream. I'm living your dream, too, so...

BILLIE JEAN KING: I'm glad. You are one of them. That makes us happy.

JUDY DALTON: It's not just in tennis, either, Chanda.

CHANDA RUBIN: Exactly it continues. I think that is really a big part of the legacy as well. It's not just on the court, but it's off.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Women's tennis is the leader in women's sports at the moment. I don't know how long it will last. We've been the leaders since that day really.

KRISTY PIGEON: Collegiate sports, too.

CHANDA RUBIN: I'll open the floor to questions now.

Q. The WTA rose and the Original Nine rose out of the women's movement, the second wave of the women's movement.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Right. (Indiscernible) was the first one.

KRISTY PIGEON: I think what was important, I'm jumping ahead to answer what was going to be your question, so I apologize. I was at the center where women were burning their bras and running around without their clothes on. That wasn't how we did it.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We wore our bras (laughter).

KRISTY PIGEON: I can remember Kerry and I sitting at Kmart all afternoon, passing out autographs, signing signatures, and people would come by and say, Who are you?

We'd give clinics and interviews at 6:30 in the morning. We got the word out there. We worked hard to do it.

I don't think any of us burned our bras, did we?

BILLIE JEAN KING: They actually didn't burn their bras. They almost did. Atlantic City?

JUDY DALTON: Atlantic City.

Q. Part of what I wanted to ask, in terms of these waves, culturally there are times when there's more activism in the issues connected to women's lives. In the most recent years MeToo has been part of that. I'm wondering how you see the current WTA as connected to some larger kind of issues, women's issues, women's power, and also whether you think the current generations of players are sufficiently kind of aware of that history out of which this association was born?

JUDY DALTON: I don't think they're aware, if I can say that. They haven't a clue.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Actually, it will be helpful that we have this.

ROSIE CASALS: It's horrible to say that, isn't it?

JUDY DALTON: But it's true.

BILLIE JEAN KING: When you get the players in here and ask them. They might know a lot more than we know.

ROSIE CASALS: Some do somewhat. Not all of them. They don't really know all of it. Lately because we've been celebrating the Original Nine, the 50th anniversary of the WTA, WTA is really putting it out there, sending the message, putting the history out. Those that can read will read it.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I think it's a lot harder than people think. You have to kind of sit and talk like we're talking now.

ROSIE CASALS: I think that's an issue that we have.

JUDY DALTON: It is.

BILLIE JEAN KING: WTA tries a lot. I'm sure they do.

JUDY DALTON: For instance, Pegula walked past the girls here before, just down the stairs. She wouldn't have a clue. She might know who Billie Jean was, but she wouldn't know any of us from Adam. Sorry, Eve (laughter).

BILLIE JEAN KING: To get back to your feminist movements, the different ones, I used to talk to Gloria Steinem and others, I kept pleading with them to use us more. We're on television every day, and we sweat. We're not a movie star where you come out and put more makeup on and say, Take three, any of that. We're real. We're strong. We trust our bodies. All the things that women have been told not to.

I used to talk to them to include us more. I must tell you, it was difficult because most of them are from the neck up, okay? Athletes are not. We are our total bodies. I said, Please use us more.

I wish they had. Gloria and I have talked since. She wishes they had, too.

KRISTY PIGEON: It's a continuing battle.

BILLIE JEAN KING: It's pretty obvious we're a huge part of the women's movement, the difference from the '60s and '70s. Also, in the United States, which we won't get into here, Title IX had just passed in 1972, which is a huge legislative victory for women, huge in schools.

We had classroom quotas before 1972. From 1972, after that, any school, college, high school, private or public, that received federal assistance from the government, had, for the first time, had to spend money equally on boys and girls. Girls used to be 5% of the quota in our education. That's why we didn't have a lot of lawyers and doctors. Now it's 60/40 women. That's not good either. We need 50/50. We need more guys now.

One of the things we didn't do is raise our boys to understand this is going to happen. They're in shockaroo. They're only at 40%. How are they going to deal with these strong women? It's going to be very interesting.

CHANDA RUBIN: A few more questions.

Q. Obviously at this tournament and the other three slams, the women and men will receive equal prize money. At a warmup event in Auckland a couple weeks ago, Coco Gauff won a third of what Richard Gasquet won for a title, same size, same venue.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Both a 500 or 250?

Q. Both the same. Coco won just over 30,000. Gasquet won towards 100,000 for that win.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Who is here from the WTA to answer that?

Q. I asked Coco about it and she wasn't aware. Do you think people need to be angrier or more upset?

JUDY DALTON: They need to be aware.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Also, if you don't engage with people, there's no change, there's no shift. And don't take anything personally is huge.

I don't know about the others, but I purposely never take anything personally, and that helps me go forward. Otherwise you can just get in a stew about the past. Oh, they hurt my feelings. Get on with it.

Everyone is doing the best they can. I know it helped me to move on. Gosh, every time... I don't know why the 250 -- might be media rights. Men get much more in media rights than the women. Content. Plus we only play two-out-of-three. I think we should either all play two-out-of-three or all play three-out-of-five.

I'm talking about everything, talking about life. Make it easier on the fans so they can understand what is going on. People think everybody knows. They don't know anything.

CHANDA RUBIN: Part of the overall market, as well. We're passionate, that is what is took and we appreciate it.

Let's get to another question.

Q. Billie, there's a good chance that we have a Belarusian winner here at the Australian Open. As it stands, that winner will be banned from Wimbledon.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We're talking about Russians now?

Q. Russians or Belarusians. Wimbledon are going to decide in the next couple weeks what they do.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I think they should get prize money.

Q. Wimbledon are meeting about this year's championships. Should there be a compromise or a straightforward ban?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Just have them play and get their money.

JUDY DALTON: It's the ranking points more.

BILLIE JEAN KING: It's the ranking points, for sure. They have to have it. Rybakina, they've seeded her 25th, but because she won Wimbledon, she's not.

CHANDA RUBIN: We'll have to wait and see what Wimbledon decides.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I hope they do, just keep it the same way the other ones are. Life is too short. We are a platform to have discussions on this, though, just like you're asking. I think it's important.

Q. Wasn't that why the WTA was started?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Yeah, the WTA was started for that, so we'd all have one voice, too, to help protect players.

Q. You founded the tour 50 years ago. The ATP was founded 53 years ago. Two tours, four slams, ITF.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We have seven actually. Seven silos?

Q. The Davis Cup is collapsing. Is it maybe time to sort of mix the whole thing up again and try to make it less broken up into different silos?

BILLIE JEAN KING: That's always been a wonderful wish.

JUDY DALTON: It would never happen.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I think we're the only sport that doesn't have a commissioner. Maybe I'm wrong. You know what, I don't know enough. Sorry.

Just think of that. Usually there's a big commissioner, right, in most everything. It's just the way it got started, the way it's evolved, going from amateur to pro.

We probably should do something different maybe, if it's a good time maybe. Sometimes it's really a blessing in disguise, you never know.

The one that helped me the most, my former husband and I owned tournaments, so I understood the business side, which is really important. Especially for the media, but just as importantly the players.

I guarantee you they do not. I don't know what the media is. I think it's so important for players to understand the sport from every angle as much as they can. Otherwise, how do you make good decisions? You can't make decisions if you don't have the information.

CHANDA RUBIN: I find it amazing you were so young, 21 years old, making these decisions, looking at the greater good, which is very hard, especially in today's age where players are more insular with their teams.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Why do they have a team? Because they have money (smiling).

I'd like to thank my team up there. All I think about is overhead (laughter).

CHANDA RUBIN: I can't afford a team yet either.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Thank you team. Thank you team. Thank you, team.

I go, Overhead (laughter).

Martina was the first one to have enough money to do that. She had money, she could do it.

JUDY DALTON: She won 120,000 that year, Eastbourne and everything. About three tournaments. We calculated it cost her like 105,000. She won 110,000. It cost her about 105 (laughter).

BILLIE JEAN KING: Judy is very good with numbers.

Q. Billie Jean, I'm wondering, regarding the Billie Jean King Cup, formerly the Fed Cup, I believe there's still not a venue for this year. We know the Davis Cup is in crisis. I'm wondering how concerned you are about the future? It took place in Scotland. The crowds were modest. Do you think the modern WTA is doing enough to support that competition?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I have no idea. I think it's nice they're talking about us, though. That's always good, then people can start talking, trying to figure things out. But I don't know.

I'm not from the WTA, so I don't know. I don't have enough information to be good. I think it's good we're being talked about. I like coed personally the best. You guys always put me in the women's thing, but if you know me, really know me, I'm coed.

ROSIE CASALS: You had TeamTennis.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We had TeamTennis for 40 years, you guys. I told Craig I loved United Cup because it's men and women. Do I think it's a perfect format? I don't know. I just told him I just love it because it's coed. I love coed, okay?

If you know my history, who I am, my philosophy, that's what it is. I know the Davis Cup was always important. They'll figure it out. They'll figure it out.

I'd like to have a venue yesterday, to your point.

Q. Billie Jean, can I ask you generally as you go, in a nutshell can you tell us how proud you are that you actually formed the Original Nine and continue to celebrate the Original Nine?

BILLIE JEAN KING: You're talking about me?

Q. Yes.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Rosie and I went to -- actually, my former husband suggested we go to Gladys and ask her if she would do it. She said no. In New Jersey we went to see her. Then Jack Kramer. Actually, it's supposed to be for both of us, Pacific Southwest, which was a very big tournament in the old days. Jack Kramer was the referee, the boss. I think the men were getting close to 65,000 and we were getting 7,500.

That forced the issue. Gladys, it's hilarious. Every time they go, How did this happen? She'd say, Jack Kramer, he's an ass (laughter). That's why I got so irritated with him.

Q. How proud are you to be sitting here today?

BILLIE JEAN KING: As a team, which I like better than singles. I think without each one of us it wouldn't have happened. It took each and every one of us, plus Gladys, plus Joe. You know what, we just went for it. We had no idea what was going to happen.

ROSIE CASALS: It's also a sense of history. It was great timing. I don't think you could do that again. It happened. The stars were aligned. Everything just happened. How do you get nine women to agree on one thing?

BILLIE JEAN KING: That sounds old-fashioned.

ROSIE CASALS: I'm just saying. We're all so different.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We are. That's what made the magic, we're really different.

ROSIE CASALS: That was the right decision.

KRISTY PIGEON: What's important, too, is not everybody was on our same page.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I had a knee operation, and I played you, I think.

JUDY DALTON: You did. She had a bad leg and said...

BILLIE JEAN KING: You beat me other times.

But it filled in the draw of eight people, you guys, eight people. I said, I'll try to play and just fill the draw.

They said, Great, you're in. We did amateurs.

JUDY DALTON: In answer to your question, Rosie said about the stars aligned. We were lucky because Philip Morris were just launching Virginia Slims. They had to have a venue in which to promote their thing. This turned out to be a perfect one.

We had Title IX, which was important. Then we had the women's lib. Basically there were three things that had a big impression on all of us. To sort of do it all, to achieve what we've done I think is fantastic.

But it's just that I don't think other people realize what we've done. I don't think the players realize what we've done. I mean, I can never see it ever happening today, that people would do that.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I don't think when they get a check they ever think about us. That's for sure. I always think about us.

JUDY DALTON: We were stupid. You know what we didn't do? We never thought the prize money would be what it was. With my little accounting brain, I thought if we had asked for 1% of all the prize money, we'd have a wonderful pension for us all.

BILLIE JEAN KING: The reason we did it, the reason it worked, the reason that made it, is because relationships are everything. We were totally together even though we have very different personalities.

It was fantastic. I knew it was a special moment in time for us to do this. Win, lose or draw. The only way it was going to change is if somebody did something like we were trying. We all got along.

One thing we always do, we all had a sense of humor. That's a saving grace.

But connections, relationships are everything.

CHANDA RUBIN: This was something special. I don't know that that could have been recreated today, but you all were in the right place at the right time, making the right decisions. We are all so lucky, so glad for that.

So thank you very much for spending this time, for giving your insights. Hopefully we can do this a little more often, keep the word out there.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Maybe we should do it in a general meeting with the WTA.

ROSIE CASALS: I think we can take this on the road.

CHANDA RUBIN: Thank you very much.