2019年5月17日金曜日

"The 10 Most Important Women in Tennis History"

Each sport has its unique history.
Women’s tennis is no different.  It  has a unique history that is totally different from the men’s.  Not only is it a history of tennis, but it is also a history of women (or rather, herstory).  As much as it is hard when you live in Japan to grasp in its fullness, Women’s tennis as it exists today would not have come about without the Women’s liberation movement.  The podcast No Challenges Remaining Episode 224 “The 10 Most Important Women in Tennis History” opened my eyes to the history of Women’s tennis such that I, a Japanese woman with little if no interest in tennis up to now, now feels a special bond to the names such as Billie Jean King and Chris Evert.
The program is hosted by Ben Rothenberg, a freelance writer for New York Times, and Courtney Nguyen, from WTA Insider.  The heated discussion of the twosome who are invested in tennis is intriguing.  The criteria of selecting the “most important 10” is how much the person affected women’s tennis.  The focus is not only on the players’ performance on court, but rather on the business side and the battle to improve women’s positions, which makes professional tennis professional tennis.  Ben also mentions that especially for one of his picks, it shows his cynicism towards tennis.
The “10 most important” women that Ben and Courtney picked are as follows.  The first five are from Courtney’s list of Mt. Rushmore, and she only picked these five.  Ben gave five others in addition to the former five, but says that he cannot number them.  I will discuss the five that are on both lists, and one controversial woman from Ben’s list.

Billie Jean King　
KATHY WILLENS / AP/PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES

Women’s tennis would not have been what it is today without her.  She was a player and also a founder of WTA at the same time, and flew to NY during tournaments to attend a business meeting and then fly back to continue in the tournament, thus laying the foundation for WTA.  She was an iconic figure in feminism, and also a business person that used femininity such as fashion and glamour to market women’s tennis, and built the most successful women’s sports league.

 Chris Evert

(Photo by Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/TempSport/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)


The woman that symbolized the women’s tennis league that Billie tried to found was Chris Evert.  She gathered the crowd.  She was pretty and also a serious player on court, and turned people’s eyes to tennis.  Her balance of being feminine and at the same time athletic won the respect of male commentators.

Martina Navratilova
(Getty Images)
Navratilova was Chris’s rival.  Together they led women’s tennis.  Navratilova brought professionalism into the sport and raised the bar.  Billie, Chris, and Navratilova together made the golden age of women’s tennis.

Venus Williams

(Getty Images)
The older of the Williams sisters.  The reason Courtney chose Venus instead of Serena was because as the older, she was the one to do everything first.  She also stood up for equal prize money, standing in front of the All England Club during the tournament at Wimbledon to demand equal prize money.  Her act was a step for women to gain the same prize money as men.

Li Na

(Getty Images)
I think that the core of this podcast was Li Na.  I even think that this program was created just to talk about Li Na.  She won only two grand slams, and was never ranked No. 1.  But she literary opened the door to tennis for 1 billion Chinese people.  Her impact can be seen by the number of Chinese sign boards in the courts, and by the fact that China is now hosting 8 major tournaments at a time when European and American companies cannot afford to do so.  This provides many employment, and supports the women’s tennis industry.  Li Na also opened up the inward focused Chinese tennis circle by training under a European coach and fighting in the world.  This became a model for Chinese players following her, and there are now many Chinese players competing globally.

 Anna Kournikova
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/09/sport/gallery/anna-kournikova-tennis-sport-marketing-sponsorship/index.html
This photo shows what kind of presence Anna, which was the target of Ben’s cynicism, held.  She was a good player, but never won a tournament.  Her fame came not from tennis, but her looks.  But, she put butts in seats.  And WTA used her glamourous charm for its own sake.  Such glamour is an inborn DNA of WTA says Courtney.  WTA thrived by selling not just the sport but also the look.


Other names that were mentioned were Althea Gibson, the first African American player, Monica Seles, the forerunner of power tennis, and Suzanne Lenglen, who was a star that was one of the first to earn a living by tennis, and ofcourse the other William sister, and an American cultural icon, Serena Williams.


https://nochallengesremaining.podbean.com/e/episode-224-the-10-most-important-women-in-tennis-history/
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