If you’ve been watching the U.S. Open (and who hasn’t?), you may have noticed these words in the advertising on the side of the courts: Champions of Equality. On opening night, Billie Jean King was honored for her role in achieving equality, particularly her role in equal prize money. On this important 50-year anniversary of equal pay for women and men at the U.S. Open, the USTA has launched a number of initiatives highlighting the work that has been done to try to achieve equality throughout the sports world. One of these initiatives celebrates one tennis member from each USTA national section, and I was surprised and honored to be chosen for the New England section.

Michelle Obama honors Billie Jean King and 50th anniversary of equal prize money at 2023 US Open

Partnering with Billie Jean King when I was young and on the Pro Tour only raised her status for me as a role model. Throughout my own career — as a player, a coach, and in tennis management — I have also focused on issues of equality in sports. As many of you know, I was the first person to use Title IX to sue an institution to gain more equality within a women’s sports program. But this example has turned out to be a small part of the ways this issue has been a concern for me in my professional life. As I work on my memoir, which I hope to publish in about two years, I realize that it is not only tennis that appears in all of the chapters of my life, it is also the theme of equality in sports. I witnessed and continue to witness inequity and hope that my book will help to highlight ways the fight needs to continue.

In addition to being invited to the awards ceremony at the U.S. Open this Thursday, which will feature Billie Jean King and Venus Williams, both clear Champions of Equality, I received tickets for the women’s semi-finals (I won’t issue any spoilers for those of you taping, but I’m looking forward to these matches!). As part of this 50 year anniversary for equal prize money celebration, the USTA has also invited women from various fields to write about what equity means to them and how they persevered. I recommend following the link below to read some of these amazing stories.

Champions of equality: Lessons learned in leveling the playing field

I hope those of you who are tennis players are able to both watch the U.S. Open and to be out on the court playing. I am proud to say that my tournament play this year has once again allowed me to be included on the U.S. women’s 70s division team at the World Team Championships, part of the ITF Masters Tour World Championships. I will be captaining the team, and the four of us (Tina Karwasky, Wendy McColskey, Ian Kirkland-Cochran, and I) hope to defend our 2022 Gold Medal when we compete next month, October 8-13, in Mallorca, Spain.