Women’s Professional Tennis: the Original Nine Dollars Part III
The first two instalments of this three part series spanned the years of women’s emergence in tennis, and gave a brief history of six of the Original Nine Dollars. These six players are Billie Jean King, Rosemary “Rosie” Casals, Kristy Pigeon, Jane “Peaches”
Bartkowicz, Valerie Ziegenfuss and Kerry Melville.
Billie Jean King, who was the most prominent advocate of women’s equality in tennis, believes that today their goal has been reached. She says, “Today's players are living our vision. In 1970, and even a few years after we signed the $1 contract with Gladys
[Heldman], people never believed women's tennis would be a global sport and that players would be making the money they make today. But it is a reality and I know today's players will continue our dreams for future generations.”
The remaining three of the Original Nine are Julie Heldman, Nancy Richey and Judy Dalton.
Julie Heldman, in addition to being a former World Number 5 tennis player, was also the daughter of Gladys Heldman. Gladys, of World Tennis magazine, was one of the building forces behind the first Virginia Slims Invitational. Julie Heldman
was one of the Houston Nine, as the original nine are often called, who boycotted the USTA to promote their own tournament. It became so popular that the tour eventually merged itself with USTA as the WTA.
Heldman, now 64, won 22 tennis titles in the duration of her career. She was ranked World Number 5 in 1969, and reached the semi finals of the 1970 French Open, the 1974 Australian Open and the 1974 US Open.
Another member of the original nine is Nancy Richey, now 68 years old. She had a very successful career, winning two Grand Slams titles at the 1967 Australian Championships and the 1968 French Open. At the end of 1969, she was ranked World
Number 2 in singles. During the years of her career, she took away 69 singles titles and was a part of the team that led the US to victory at the 1969 Fed Cup.
Richey also won the US Women’s Clay Court Championships singles title for a record-setting six consecutive years, from 1963 to 1968.
The last Original Nine Dollar is Aussie former tennis player Judy Tegart Dalton.
This player, now 73 years old, won nine Grand Slam doubles titles during her career. Five of these titles were won with tennis great Margaret Court. She won a Grand Slam title at all tournaments, completing a doubles Career Grand Slam.
Dalton managed to reach the 1968 Wimbledon final by defeating Court in the event’s quarterfinals and fellow Original Nine Dollar, Nancy Richey in the semi final. She was defeated by Billie Jean King, another one of the Original Nine. She is unusual, because
the first Grand Slam singles tournament quarterfinal she reach outside Australia was after she turned 29.
These nine women are responsible for quite literally changing the face of tennis. Their mission, as quoted by King, was “to ensure that any girl in the world that was good enough would have a place to go and make a living playing tennis.”
The Original Nine Dollars obviously accomplished this mission; today, women tennis players receive the same amount of prize money as men at every Grand Slam and first tier event. WTA players are not only multi-millionaires, they are amongst the richest athletes
of any sport in the world. As the world’s highest paid female athlete, Maria Sharapova says,“[I am] humbled by what these nine women have done for my career. I am personally grateful for their vision and their ‘fight’ for all the generations that followed
them.”
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