![]()
1 The Trailblazers
Setting the stage for social activism in women’s tennis
In women’s tennis, the Trailblazers set the stage for the formidable social activism that occurred, beginning in 1970. Sociologist Nancy Whittier describes Trailblazers, to whom she refers as initiators, as having “developed and made visible a critique of the status quo, formed initial organizations and networks, and articulated the issues that initially mobilized feminists into action” (1995, p. 59). The notable women who advocated for women’s equality early in tennis were Suzanne Lenglen, Althea Gibson, and Ann Haydon Jones. These women are each from different eras of tennis, Lenglen from the 1920s, Gibson, the 1950s, and Haydon Jones, the 1960s. Because the actions of these players were not joined by a collective, sustained effort and these women remained solo actors, their efforts were easily dismissed by the establishment. However, they nonetheless paved the way for the collective social activism that would take place, beginning in 1970.
Suzanne Lenglen, the first celebrity of women’s tennis
Suzanne Lenglen was born in 1899 in Paris, France, but she spent most of her youth and early adulthood in Nice, at her family’s home conveniently located across the street from the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (Little, 1988, p. 2). In 1914, at the age of 14, Lenglen had been a French Championships finalist. However, her career was put on hold until 1919, due to the outbreak of World War I.
Between 1919–1926, Lenglen won six Wimbledon titles, two French Championships, and a gold medal at the Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920. Lenglen shot to fame and celebrity status at Wimbledon in 1919 for two reasons. First, she defeated Dorothea Chambers, who was a seven-time Wimbledon champion, solidifying her reputation in tennis.1 Second, Lenglen created a stir which forever changed tennis fashion and established Lenglen’s celebrity status. During the 1919 Wimbledon championships, Lenglen played in a dress designed by the famous Parisian couturier Jean Patou. According to Ted Tinling, the famous British tennis couturier, Lenglen “appeared in a flimsy, one-piece, cotton ‘frock’ which was calf-length, with short sleeves, and worn without petticoats” (Tinling, 1977, p. 8). Other players were still playing while completely covered in clothing from their neck to their wrists and ankles. It is difficult to know which caused more of a shock to the tennis world and Wimbledon high society: Lenglen’s risqué tennis attire, or her sipping of brandy between sets.
Though no woman at Wimbledon had previously shown her ankles or arms, the dress itself allowed for Lenglen’s physicality and athleticism to be less constrained than in traditional tennis fashion. Tinling noted that Lenglen “used to say that skill must come first and clothes must free the body. So she got rid of all the petticoats, stiff with starch as they were then” (Matheson, 1975). The next year, 1920, Lenglen added to her fashion-forward sense when she
returned to England with the new “bobbed” hairstyle; to keep her hair attractively in place, she conceived what was soon to become the famous “Lenglen bandeau,” two yards of brightly colored silk chiffon, tightly swathed around her head. Within weeks the Lenglen bandeau was copied by a million women, and for the next six years there was not a tennis girl who did not attempt some imitation of the Lenglen look.
(Tinling, 1979, p. 21)
There is no documentation of the relationship between Patou and Lenglen beyond the accounts that he designed her tennis dresses. He was, however, known for his sports clothing for women. Charles Creed, of the Parisian couture house which specialized in English tailoring, noted that Patou had a “wonderful flair for publicity” (Evans, 2008, p. 256), and Lenglen’s status in tennis and in society certainly would have given Patou considerable publicity.
It was through Lenglen that Ted Tinling’s own career in women’s tennis was born. Tennis fashion, though, was probably the unifying force between Tinling and Lenglen. Lenglen “was the ultimate ‘diva’ of sport, and she contrived to bring a taste of highly sophisticated theater to a world previously centered only on a leisurely pastime” (Tinling, 1979, p. 14), and this theater was often created through fashion. Of Lenglen, Tinling noted that she “taught me that tennis was show-biz and clothes had to be dramatic, too” (Matheson, 1975). But he also learned the importance of comfort for the players.
As early as 1926, women had shown discontentment with the pay structure of tennis. Suzanne Lenglen was an eight-time Grand Slam champion,2 the namesake of the Coupe de Lenglen given to the women’s champion of the French Open, and the world’s first female tennis celebrity. She was also a very early advocate for tennis becoming professional. In 1926, Lenglen stated that:
In the twelve years I have been champion I have earned literally millions of francs for tennis and have paid thousands of francs in entrance fees to be allowed to do so. … Where did all this money go? … Why shouldn’t the players get something out of it? It meant years of practice and a life’s work for most of us. … The owners of these clubs at which I so often played were mostly shrewd businessmen and they saw to it that these tournaments netted them a handsome profit. … Under these absurd and antiquated amateur rulings only a wealthy person can compete. … Is that fair? Does it advance the sport? Does it make tennis more popular or does it tend to suppress and hinder an enormous amount of tennis talent … whose names are not in the social register?
(Little, 1988, p. 83)
Had it not been stated beforehand that these words were spoken by Lenglen in 1926, one might have suspected that Billie Jean King or one of the other well-known activists of women’s tennis had made these remarks in 1970, 44 years later. The same words would reflect the growing unrest in women’s tennis that finally came to a head in 1970. What Lenglen’s words do reflect is the extent of the issue of women making a fair livelihood in women’s tennis.
Lenglen turned professional in the fall of 1926, a decision that would keep her banned from subsequent Grand Slam events. She signed to tour the US and Canada for four months in late 1926 and early 1927. For this work, she was paid the huge sum of $50,000 (over $700,000 in current dollars) in addition to a share of the profits (Little, 1988, p. 94). Though Lenglen gained a hefty sum for this tour, she likely would have won many more Grand Slam events had she been allowed to compete in them. When tennis became “open” in 1968, amateurs and professionals competed together for the first time. From 1968, a player could have professional contracts – clothing, rackets, exhibition matches, etc. – and receive prize money from the tournament. Amateur players, usually college players or players still playing in junior events, simply refuse the prize money.
Althea Gibson, breaking down racial barriers in women’s tennis
Althea Gibson was born in South Carolina in 1927, but she and her family moved to Harlem, New York, in 1930. In 1941, she won the New York State Championships, the first tournament that she entered. In 1944 and 1945, Gibson won the junior’s division of the American Tennis Association’s (ATA) national championship. The ATA was the alternative Black tennis association to the white-dominated United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). The following year, 1946, she was a finalist in the women’s division of the ATA national championships. Beginning in 1947, Gibson won ten straight women’s national championships. Gibson gained the attention of Walter Johnson3 and Hubert Eaton, Black physicians based in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Wilmington, North Carolina, respectively. Under the guidance of Drs. Johnson and Eaton, Gibson was educated, trained in nutrition and proper hygiene habits, and manners, alongside tennis training. These values helped her more easily transition into the upper class and white world of women’s tennis once it was desegregated.
In 1956, a British journalist wrote,
To pretend that Miss Gibson is just another player is to bilk the truth. She is the first colored player ever to invade a game which is riddled with snobbery, even if your skin is the same color as the majority of the other players in it.
(Gibson, 1958, pp. 106–107)
In the context of tennis in the United States, racial segregation at tournaments was the standard until Gibson played the US National Championships (now the US Open) in 1950. To understand the blocking of Gibson, a Black woman and long-time champion of the ATA, from the US National Championships until 1950, as racism on the part of the USLTA is to miss half the story. The USLTA had anti-discrimination policies on the books. To qualify to play at the US Open National Championships required gaining ranking points through a series of smaller tournaments; however, most of those smaller tournaments were held at segregated country clubs across the US Though Gibson could qualify to play the tournaments, she was not allowed to enter the grounds of the country clubs because of their racial segregation policies, which made these tournaments available only to white players.
In 1950, under mounting pressure, the USLTA granted Gibson a wildcard to play the US National Championships, thereby bypassing the requirement for ranking points from these sanctioned tournaments. Alice Marble, widely regarded at the time as the greatest player that the US had ever produced, having won five Grand Slam singles titles between 1936–1940, publicly appealed for Gibson to be allowed to play the US National Championships in the July 1950 issue of American Lawn Tennis magazine. She wrote:
If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it’s also time we acted a little more like gentlepeople and less like sanctimonious hypocrites. If there is anything left in the name of sportsmanship, it’s more than time to display what it means to us. If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of women players, it’s only fair that they should meet that challenge on the courts, where tennis is played. … If she is refused a chance to succeed or to fail, then there is an uneradicable mark against a game to which I have devoted most of my life, and I would be bitterly ashamed.
(Gibson, 1958, p. 60)
With intense lobbying by the ATA, coupled with the letter written by Alice Marble, in mid-August of 1950, Gibson learned that she had been granted a wildcard to enter the US National Championships.
Taking a step back, in order to counter the racial segregation of USLTA-sanctioned tournaments, the ATA was formed in 1916 and became the governing body for sanctioning tournaments that were often held at Black universities and other spaces that were open to Black players. Of particular note, the Peters sisters, Roumania and Margaret, dominated the ATA circuit in singles and doubles from the 1930s through the early 1950s, and Althea Gibson was dominant in the ATA circuit during the late 1940s and 1950s, winning ten straight women’s national titles beginning in 1947. Between 1956 and 1958, Gibson won five Grand Slam tournaments: the French Championships, which is now the French Open, two US Championships, and two Wimbledon titles.
The interlocking social institutions of tennis allowed country clubs to continue to hold USTA-sanctioned tournaments, despite the USTA having established anti-discrimination policies. Being sanctioned means that the tournament counts towards ranking points. At any time, the USTA could have denied sanctioning the tournaments at segregated country clubs; however, they did not. Thus, even though the USTA had anti-discrimination policies, these apparently did not extend beyond the corporate offices. By analyzing these interlocking institutions, we can see the complexity and contextualization that intersectionality offers.
In 1968, the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, which had previously only allowed amateur players to enter, became open to both amateurs and professionals. Prior to the open era, players were paid under the table to compete in tournaments. This system was not equitable, but based on the perceived marketability of the players. Thus, we can assume that white male players were paid more under the table than Black male players. Likewise, white female players were paid much less under the table than white male players, and Black female players were likely not paid at all. For example, Althea Gibson, who had won five Grand Slam titles along with being named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in 1957 and 1958, often struggled financially to continue her tennis career, which ended abruptly in 1958 due to financial hardship.
Althea Gibson broke the color barrier, desegregating tennis at the highest level, similar to Jackie Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball in 1947. Gibson’s efforts paved the way for Arthur Ashe and subsequent Black tennis players, most notably the Williams sisters. Of her Wimbledon victory in 1956, Gibson wrote:
Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. Dancing with the Duke of Devonshire was a long way from not being allowed to bowl in Jefferson City, Missouri, because the white customers complained about it.
(Gibson, 1958, p. 127)
She had indeed entered a completely different world and ensured that other Black players who followed her could, too.
Ann Haydon Jones, the feminist matriarch of women’s professional tennis in the “open” era
Ann Jones was born in 1938 in Birmingham, England. She won the British girls championships in 1954 and 1955, and the Wimbledon girls title in 1956. She went on to win three Grand Slam singles titles: the French Open in 1961 and 1966, and Wimbledon in 1969. Jones was also a finalist at the US Open in both 1961 and 1967.
The world’s first open tennis event was the British Hard Court Championships, held in Bournemouth, England, April 22–27, 1968. Ann Jones (née Haydon) boycotted the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) event due to the unequal prize money distribution. The men’s singles winner at the tournament, Ken Rosewall, received £1,000 and the women’s singles winner, Virginia Wade, would have received £300. However, she was still an amateur, so she was obligated to refuse all of the prize money except expenses.
Jones had won the French Championships in 1961 and 1966, and would go on to win Wimbledon in 1969, and she leveraged the power that she had earned through playing tennis against the LTA. Since the British Hard Court Championships was the first open tennis event, Jones’ actions were the first protest against unequal prize money distribution in professional tennis. Linda Timms, in an early article on prize money disparity, wrote:
The leader of the mo...
