Gods of Tennis

Narrator: This is the inside story of how, in the seventies and eighties, a cast of unapologetic mavericks revolutionized the tranquil world of tennis.

John McEnroe: You can't be serious.

You cannot be serious!

McEnroe, voice-over: I would say, on some level, there were some anger issues.

Martina Navratilova: Are you supposed to, like, be demure and blend in?

**** that.

Ha ha ha!

Narrator: On the court, they were geniuses.

[Crowd cheers] Announcer: Oh, I don't believe it.

Narrator: Off it, they were superstars.

Woman: Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King.

Who's got star presence?

They have.

[Crowd cheers] Man: Bjorn Borg.

Woman: Bjorn Borg.

Woman 2: Bjorn Borg.

Navratilova: Borg was a superstar.

Man: Borg was, uh, sex personified.

The guy was unbelievable.

Woman: He was in a different league; I mean, he wouldn't have looked at me.

Borg: If you say "sex god," I hope I was popular for my tennis.

Ha ha ha ha!

Announcer: The champ!

[Crowd cheers] Tennis was absolutely massive!

Narrator: At a time when the sports world was embracing historic cultural change.

Man: Arthur had wanted South Africans to see a free Black man.

You had to be beyond reproach.

Billie Jean King: Sports are a microcosm of society.

It reflects what's going on in the world.

Narrator: The spotlight fell on Wimbledon, the world's oldest tennis tournament.

Woman: It provides a stage for brutal, gladiatorial combat that's disguised as a vicar's tea party.

McEnroe, voice-over: Here's a newsflash.

If I hadn't been as good as I was, no one would have given a damn.

[Theme music playing] [Women chanting] Out of the home, out from under.

Women unite!

Narrator: In the mid-seventies, it felt like the world was on the brink of revolution.

Woman: Women!

Join us!

Women!

Join us!

Man: Violence is necessary.

We will be free by any means necessary.

Man: There was that feeling that the establishment deserved to be put back in its place, deserved to be told, "No, you can't tell us what to do."

[Cheering and applause] Announcer: So a tremendous cheer as they come out for the 1975 final.

Narrator: On one of the most significant weekends in Wimbledon history, two of the game's trailblazers-- Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King-- were not only intent on winning the tournament, but changing the world in the process.

[Applause] Man: Why did you want to change the world, Billie?

Why did I want to change the world?

Everybody should have a chance.

Everybody should be included.

Everybody should have a voice.

Narrator: Billie Jean King had been fighting for gender equality in tennis, shifting women from the margins by becoming the game's powerhouse, impossible to ignore.

Woman: The men were always the stars, the women were the fluff, and Billie Jean wasn't having any of that.

She showed she had to win.

Before that, it was considered unladylike.

[Applause] Announcer: And Billie Jean there.

Narrator: King had been dominant in the women's tennis scene for nearly a decade... [Applause] Announcer: Extraordinary.

Narrator: famous for her unparalleled court speed, forceful net game... Announcer: Oh, what a courageous winner.

Narrator: and fierce competitiveness.

Announcer: Yes!

OK, Billie Jean.

Let's talk about Billie Jean.

She was a force of nature.

[Cheering and applause] Woman: Billie Jean was always looking much further than anybody else was.

She was looking to how women's sport, women's tennis would evolve.

Official: Out.

McEnroe: Billie Jean King, the number-one person, in my book, the last hundred years that has changed the way people look at women's sports.

Narrator: Now, aged 31, having scraped through the semifinal, King was desperate for a sixth Wimbledon title to bow out as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

One more minute, ladies.

[Applause] Narrator: But first, she had to beat Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australia's number-one tennis star, in the final.

Official: First set, play.

Official: Out!

King, voice-over: I really wanted to win.

It meant a lot to me.

I pretty much knew that was my last time I had a chance.

Narrator: On the same weekend, Arthur Ashe was putting racial injustice into focus by attempting to become Wimbledon's first Black men's champion.

Johnette Howard: I think Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King came to their activism differently.

Billie had a great compassion for what Black people in America were fighting for, but Arthur, at first, was not a feminist and there was some tension between them, actually.

Man: It was a great, great thrill.

I mean, there weren't many, you know, Black American players or Black players, generally, and Arthur Ashe was quite aware of fighting for a place in society of people of his color.

Narrator: Ashe was up against his adversary, the volatile fan favorite, Jimmy Connors.

[Applause] Official: Connors to serve.

Quiet, please.

Play.

Man: I don't think Jimmy really liked Arthur, particularly.

He felt that, I think, Arthur got undue adulation.

[Applause] Official: 15-love.

[Applause] Official: 30-love.

[Applause] Official: 40-love.

Dell: In America, people always ask, "Where were you when John F. Kennedy was killed?"

Many people in tennis say, "Where were you when Arthur Ashe played in the final in Wimbledon?"

Official: Game, Connors.

[Applause] McDonald: Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe were trying to change the status quo.

That's the source of all revolution, and they understood the place they occupy in society, and what they say and what they do does matter.

You can talk from the top of a mountain.

Nobody will hear you, then what?

Your voice isn't being heard, and I knew I had a huge platform at Wimbledon, so that was the one I had to win.

Announcer: Crowds arrive, the curtain rises on the first open Wimbledon.

A revolution has taken place.

Narrator: King and Ashe's fight for change started 7 years earlier at a Wimbledon championship that transformed tennis.

Previously an amateur tournament, in 1968, Wimbledon entered the open era.

Players turned professional, and prize money was up for grabs for the first time.

[Applause] Woman: We had been through the swinging sixties, when anything goes.

Wimbledon had been peculiarly unaffected by that.

Nobody was allowed to be anything as vulgar as paid.

[Applause] King: Wimbledon was the place you wanted to win, but they had wanted us to be amateurs for a long time, and I didn't like that.

I wanted our sport to be pro.

Amateur means you're-- it's a hobby, and this was not a hobby.

Announcer: Black, white, or brown skin, short hair and long, seeking the right to be known as the best player in the world.

Richard Evans: Tennis was evolving, extracting itself from the strict amateur game, and becoming a professional sport, and television picked it up.

Director: And the 3 on King.

[King grunts] Ross: They started showing tennis in color.

You know, it was a great thing to watch.

There were incredible athletes, and you saw these people playing at Wimbledon, so it made it available for mass consumption.

Announcer: It's Arthur Ashe and the "Flying Dutchman," Tom Okker, but Okker can't match Ashe's blistering power.

[Applause] Narrator: After 9 years as an amateur, King was suddenly playing in front of a global audience of millions, but her uncompromising style was making waves.

King: Oh, no!

[Applause] Bobby Wilson: The game is possibly not quite so attractive today with the emphasis on the-- some of the girls, like Billie Jean King, who charges around the court very much like a man.

You know, when a woman speaks up, she's tough and she's harsh and she's hard, but when a man speaks up, he's a leader, so... go figure it out.

They always said we played like a guy or like a man, and I thought to myself, "No... we play aggressively."

Official: Out.

People just assume that equals a male, and I did not.

[Cheering, applause, and whistling] Announcer: The women's finalists, Billie Jean King and Judy Tegart.

Narrator: At only 24 years old, King fought her way to the '68 Wimbledon final to face the intrepid Australian, Judy Tegart.

[Applause] Announcer: Billie Jean has scored for points all through this Wimbledon.

Judy's strong, no-nonsense game is not quite enough against the American's ruthless cut and thrust, but it is a good fighting final.

King's service power is swinging it her way.

King: As a child growing up, I dreamed about winning Wimbledon.

Howard: She grew up in a real working-class family.

Her father was a firefighter, her mother was a homemaker and would sell Avon products to make ends meet.

She was taught discipline and that you had to work for things, and I think that has always informed her life.

And she used to tell her mother the world she wanted didn't exist yet, but that she was gonna do something to create it.

[Applause] Announcer: Now it's championship point for the American.

Tegart serves.

[Crowd cheering] Announcer: It's out.

Billie Jean has done it... [Applause] and her name goes on the huge plate.

Announcer: The year 1968, Rod Laver leading Billie Jean around the floor, but the partnership of the sexes was soon under stress.

King: Rod Laver won �2,000 and I won �750.

I thought we'd get the same, and we didn't.

That was a wake-up call.

Announcer: Billie Jean King, world tennis champion and leader of a special brand of female revolutionaries.

Narrator: In a radical move, King and 8 other renegade players signed a $1.00 contract to create a professional women's tennis circuit of their own.

Known as the Original Nine, King and the gang were soon touring America, playing for big money in women-only tournaments.

And we got money, prize money, and it kept going up every year.

Navratilova: She made women believe that they are equal to men, so that was a monumental change.

Narrator: But on the tennis circuit, King's tour was being met with suspicion.

Howard: There was a famous "Sports Illustrated" article, where a guy was dispatched to follow the women's tours.

It was almost like he was trying to reassure people.

He said nobody had a beard, nobody walked like a lumberjack.

These notions that women athletes were freaks and that they were destined to these lives where they were gonna be unloved and, you know, a lot of it was a code word for--for being gay.

Those were the kind of things they were fighting.

[Traffic noise] Narrator: It was clear that King's fight for equal pay had its critics.

And on a late-night talk show, Arthur Ashe didn't mince his words.

Ashe: Yeah.

Did you say that women players ought to be kept in their place or something to that effect?

No, no, you couldn't have said anything like-- I said it when Billie Jean wasn't listening.

[Both chuckle] The amount of money that we make, or that we can command in prize money is directly related to our box-office appeal.

Now, what I said was that women don't deserve the same amount of prize money as men.

Man: Was it frustrating for you that he didn't back equal pay?

Wasn't just-- it was all guys.

They just thought we shouldn't have anything.

Men basically thought they should have all the money at Wimbledon.

They just automatically think it's theirs.

Howard: Billie's argument was always that they would be stronger together.

They both had their constituencies that they were fighting for, but Billie has always been a great student of the Civil Rights Movement, and so the idea that she couldn't find some common ground with this guy really hurt her.

Narrator: Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King's dispute intensified at a groundbreaking Wimbledon championship.

While King fought to keep up with the men's earning potential, the men were after even more.

Ashe: What the administration doesn't seem to realize is that we are professional athletes with a mind of our own.

Do you think this is an issue as to who really should run tennis, the players or the LTA?

I think it may be coming to that.

If they run it all for themselves and want to govern and direct every tournament in the world, that we can't have.

Narrator: Rather than join forces with the women, the men formed their own union.

Among its leaders was Arthur Ashe.

Just days before the tournament began, 81 men's players refused to compete, staging Wimbledon's first boycott.

Ashe: The Wimbledon authorities cannot make us play.

In fact, no tournament in the world, no tennis event can make anyone play.

Narrator: Some of the men may have been absent, but King saw that year's Wimbledon as the perfect chance to put the women's game center-stage.

[Applause] [Cheering] Narrator: King was at the top of her game and beat Evonne Goolagong Cawley to reach the final, hoping for another Wimbledon win.

But, standing between King and a fifth Wimbledon singles trophy was her worst nightmare.

Announcer: Chris Evert typifies the regiment of young stars who have invaded Wimbledon this year, a new, special breed.

Narrator: 18-year-old Chris Evert was something of a prodigy, shown the ropes from the age of 5 by her tennis coach father.

[Applause] Announcer: And so they're all occasion, as Billie Jean comes on court with Chrissy Evert in her second Wimbledon ever, and here she is, playing in the final.

Evert: Even though I'm American, I think Wimbledon is numero uno.

It's the biggest tournament in the world.

If you're gonna pick one Grand Slam title to win, you want to win Wimbledon.

Mott: They could not have been greater opposites.

Chris Evert was presented as Miss Apple Pie.

You know, her hair was never out of place.

She had that beautiful blonde ponytail.

Howard: Billie was not universally loved.

Christy was more interested in just keeping the status quo and not ruffling any feathers.

Official: Quiet, please.

Miss Evert to serve.

Narrator: Adding to the intensity of the match, Evert--on the advice of her father-- was one of the few players initially resistant to joining King's controversial women-only tour.

[Applause and cheering] Announcer: Miss Evert's first point.

The crowd unashamedly cast their vote for the underdog, the lady who is not Mrs. King.

Howard: Chris had not been a part of Billie Jean's rebel wing.

Billie begged and begged 'cause she knew that Chris was the next superstar on the horizon, but she would not join them.

Evert: When she was starting to speak out for equal opportunities, equal prize money, I didn't understand; I was brought up where the father was the head of the household.

The mother would stay home and take care of the kids and cook.

Official: Game for Mrs. King.

[Applause] Announcer: Mrs. King playing with great authority here at the moment.

Official: Five games to love.

First set, Mrs. King leads.

Evert: I was a clay court player.

I grew up on clay.

Grass was the antithesis, I think, of my game-- serve and volley-- and all the women in that era served and volleyed.

[Cheering and applause] Announcer: Two set points.

Barker: Billie Jean King wanted to win so much.

She didn't really care about whether people loved her or not, she just wanted to win the last point.

[Applause] Narrator: King won the first set, 6-love... but the second set would not be so easy.

Evert: My dad taught me at an early age, "Chrissy, don't let your opponents see how you're really feeling because they'll use that to their advantage," so I kind of went along with that philosophy.

Announcer: That's more like the lob.

[Cheering and applause] That's the shot that's going to worry Mrs. King, if anything does.

Barker: Chrissy was a goddess, she looked a million dollars, everyone fell in love with her.

Official: 40-love.

Announcer: And a really badly timed forehand by Mrs. King there.

Barker: But mentally, she was the toughest player there's ever been in the women's game.

[Applause] Narrator: Evert fought back in the second set, and King began making mistakes.

[Applause] Official: Game for Miss Evert, leads in the second set by 4 games to 3.

Announcer: And really spirited resistance and play there by Chrissy Evert.

Evert: I was only gonna be focused.

Ha ha ha!

That was me.

That was my nature.

I react to pressure well.

[Cheering and applause] Howard: Billie Jean is never discounted, as far as strategy; if she can't intimidate somebody, she'll out-think them.

If she can't out-hit them, she'll outsmart them.

She always found a way to win.

[Applause] King: I knew I had to try to stay away from her backhand.

She's on the baseline, and you hit it right into her backhand, which is her strength, so you're toast.

Announcer: Well-played, well-played.

King: I knew I had to stay aggressive because Chris is a baseliner.

You can't just, you know, serve, volley, serve, volley.

She's too good.

You can't do that.

[Applause] Narrator: King used all her experience and turned up the heat on the prodigious young rival... [Applause] and after one and a half hours, King was one point away from victory... Announcer: Serving for the championship, then.

Narrator: and the chance to cement her position on the world stage.

Announcer: It's out, and there is the championship for Billie Jean.

Official: Set and match, King.

Announcer: 6-love, 7-5, and so Billie Jean achieves a postwar record 5 times, and that's going to be a record, I think, that will take a great deal to beat.

Narrator: Evert lost her first Wimbledon final, but her calculated gameplay marked her as a serious threat to King's dominance.

[Whistling and applause] Announcer: And so Billie Jean goes forward to take the famous tray.

Narrator: As if to prove a point, becoming singles champion wasn't King's only achievement that weekend.

King: I played 3 events-- singles, doubles, and mixed-- and I won all 3, which I do not know how.

Narrator: King became the first professional player in Wimbledon history to win a Triple Crown.

But, despite her unprecedented success, men's champion Jan Kodes took home a higher earning just for lifting the men's singles trophy.

King: It was tumultuous, very frustrating.

We had a long way to go.

[Jet engine roaring] Announcer: Arthur Ashe, the Black American, is the cause of the biggest controversy in South Africa at the moment.

Narrator: Having boycotted Wimbledon, 8,000 miles away, Arthur Ashe was making history of his own.

Announcer: He has entered for the South African Championships, but the government claims that Ashe will indulge in politics.

Narrator: Ashe would be the tournament's first Black men's player.

Having been critical of the country's apartheid laws, Ashe, like Billie Jean, hoped tennis would inspire social change.

McDonald: The apartheid system excluded virtually 80% of the population from great swathes of life.

Johnnie Ashe: The Black community tried to castrate him about going, but he wanted South Africans to see a free Black man because so many of them never had.

Woman: Being world-famous and being Black, is that a responsibility that you feel?

Oh, yeah.

I don't like it, but I feel it, and I don't shrug it off.

Narrator: Where Billie Jean King was confrontational, Ashe was conventional, befitting a gentleman rebel who grew up in segregated Virginia.

Johnnie Ashe: Our father was a caretaker of a 17-acre playground, and on the playground were tennis courts, so, growing up, Arthur gravitated to the tennis courts.

South African poet said about Arthur, "There was a quiet rage in his soul."

He wanted to appeal to as many good people as possible.

That had to be done, not through a lot of bolster and noise, but through an intellectual vein.

Narrator: On the day of the South Africa tournament, a 13-year-old tennis fan was one of thousands desperate to see Ashe play, traveling in from Alexandra, one of the poorest townships in Johannesburg.

Mark Mathabane: Everybody was saying, "Isipho is coming."

That's Zulu for "gift."

"The gift from America is coming."

I knew that this was worth risking my life to discover the secret.

What had he done to become free?

Narrator: Ashe attended the tournament, hoping his presence among the white tennis elite would shatter the legitimacy of South Africa's strict segregation laws.

Mathabane: He demanded that the tournament had to be integrated, and for the first time in South African history, Blacks could not only play, but they could also be spectators.

It was huge.

Narrator: From the 32 men's players in the tournament, Ashe made the final against the game's emerging bad boy... 21-year-old Jimmy Connors.

Mathabane: Jimmy Connors was brash, he was confident, he was everything that the white people wanted a white man to be.

Ha!

Jimmy was there.

For the blacks, Arthur was ours.

So you can just imagine the pressure that Arthur must be feeling, because he's carrying the weight of all Black South Africans.

[Applause] [Crowd groans] [Applause] Mathabane: When he lost in 3 sets, I could feel the dejection.

I so much wanted to tell him that, "Even in defeat, you were triumphant..." "because you made "numberless of Black people in South Africa "realize that apartheid is based on a lie."

"That victory is much more than anything you could have accomplished on the court."

Narrator: In Houston, Billie Jean King had decided to make her most outrageous statement yet.

She had been challenged to an extraordinary exhibition match against self-confessed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs.

Johnny Carson: Do you like women?

I really think the best way to handle the women is to-- is to keep them pregnant... [Audience gasps] and barefoot and... [Murmurs, scattered applause] this way, they don't worry about getting out in the men's world and competing for jobs and trying to get equal money and all that baloney.

Narrator: At 55, Bobby Riggs was a former world tennis champion, determined to prove men were superior to women.

He'd recently defeated King's contemporary, Margaret Court, in a sweeping match dubbed "The Mother's Day Massacre."

Now, King felt compelled to accept Riggs' invitation.

Mott: The "Battle of the Sexes" was the name given to a match, with a view to putting us women back in our box.

[Cheering and whistling] Narrator: The winner would receive $100,000, and 90 million people tuned in to see the duel.

There was so much on the line for that match.

It was men versus women.

It was very Hollywood, showbiz, but that's the way that she had to get to people.

Howard: There was a lot of dog-whistling in the media coverage.

In the introductory remarks about Billie, Howard Cosell, the leading American sports commentator at the time, said nothing about her accomplishments or all the titles she had won or anything else.

He was talking about her looks.

Cosell: Here comes Billie Jean King, a very attractive young lady, and sometimes, you get the feeling that if she ever let her hair grow down to her shoulders, took her glasses off, you'd have somebody vying for a Hollywood screen test.

There she is.

Woman: I cannot imagine taking that challenge on, and you've got to win because this isn't just about you.

This is about every woman.

Man: You had a lot to lose in the "Battle of the Sexes" game, correct?

We had a lot to lose.

Narrator: The match was the best of 5 sets.

The first to 3 would win.

Mott: If she'd lost, you'd feel the cause of women, ludicrously, would have been set back.

Narrator: King won the first set, 6-4... Mott: She wasn't fighting to play men, she was just fighting for women to have the same chances that men had.

Narrator: quickly took the second set, with Riggs winning just 3 games.

[Cheering, whistling, and applause fade in] Narrator: Despite his swagger, King made short work of Riggs in straight sets in just 57 minutes.

McEnroe: Forget Bobby Riggs, OK, 'cause Bobby Riggs is like a--a footnote in history at this point.

What Billie Jean King did was the most important thing in the history of women's sport.

King: The men thought it should be all for them, that we should go away.

And I thought, "Who said that?"

[Chuckles] Narrator: That year, the U.S. Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to pay men and women equal prize money.

Barker: I remember, when she won, my coach called me and said to me, he said, "Your hobby has now just become a career."

Narrator: Having fought his own battle, Arthur Ashe was warming to Billie Jean King's fight, too.

What changed Arthur was when she beat Bobby Riggs, and also, apartheid in South Africa, he had an awakening, and I think both things dovetailed to kind of bring them back together.

Arthur used to joke he won a lot of money; he was one of the few men that bet on her to win.

Ha ha ha!

[Cheering, whistling, and applause] Narrator: Despite King and Ashe's personal triumphs, they made early Wimbledon exits the following year and now risked being eclipsed by two familiar young rivals coming up fast behind.

Chris Evert's popularity was at an all-time high.

Woman: Chris Evert took the world by storm.

She was this beautiful young lady who spoke well and was gracious, and I think she really captured the imagination.

Narrator: She'd also recently started dating Ashe's tricky rival, the brash Jimmy Connors, as Wimbledon welcomed tennis' new celebrity couple.

Man: Did his sort of bad-boy image attract you?

Absolutely.

Ha ha!

Abso--absolutely.

Dell: I managed Connors for 9 years.

Man: How was that?

That was difficult.

Heh!

Announcer: Connors does not lack support.

He's brought his mum along.

Dell: His mother was his coach.

He called his mother every morning.

Jimmy trusted very few people in his life, and she was the number-one person.

Margolyes: It should always be the tennis that matters.

I know that, but you can't help be seduced by antics.

[Applause] Man: He was a catch.

I mean, you were a catch, but he was--he was like-- Geez.

Ha ha ha ha!

OK. How is Jimmy more of a catch than me?

We were both young, upcoming players, you know, with great futures ahead of us.

[Applause] You know, it was like a fantasy.

Narrator: To the delight of the masses, Connors and Evert announced their engagement.

[Cheering and applause] And with both winning Wimbledon that year, the press dubbed it the "Love Double."

Evert: If I were to pick a first love, he was the best.

We had a lot of fun.

We had a lot of fun.

Narrator: The following year, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe were back, ready to challenge the Love Double's dominance at Wimbledon.

Having beaten Betty Stove in the quarters, King met Evert in the semifinal, and this time, Evert was reigning champion and number-one in the world.

Being number-one is a very powerful feeling.

You've earned respect, it's good for your self-esteem, but if people want to beat one person in the world, it's you.

Narrator: After over a decade at the top, King was 31 and threatening retirement.

She wanted another Wimbledon title to cement her legacy and inspire the next generation of women... [Crowd groans] Official: Game for Miss Evert.

Narrator: but, tied at one set all, it seemed Evert wanted to make a point.

Crowd: Oh!

[Applause] Barker: I mean, Chrissy, she was just in a different league.

Announcer: Miss Evert is often called the "Ice Maiden."

Barker: The mental toughness that she had, to me, was second to none.

[Applause] Evert: You want emotion?

Then you're not gonna get it from me on the tennis court.

Announcer: So fighting for her life here, Billie Jean.

Official: Out.

Official 2: Game for Miss Evert.

[Applause] Announcer: Mrs. King, the number-3 seed, in some danger now.

Narrator: Within an hour, Evert had blitzed ahead.

[Applause] With the match slipping away from King, suddenly, a familiar face was spotted in the Wimbledon crowd.

The distraction was Jimmy Connors, who came with either a date or a girlfriend.

Howard: Chrissy and Jimmy Connors had not publicly announced that they were done, and he walked in with Susan George, the actress.

Yeah, I mean, I thought we were gonna get married.

Three months before the wedding, I had a sinking feeling of--[sighs]-- "This isn't-- this isn't right."

We were both trying to be number-one, and something had to give, and our relationship was what gave.

Howard: Everybody stopped, the--you know, this was back when Fleet Street was at its height.

The flashbulbs were popping, the whole thing.

[Camera shutters clicking] She lost her concentration, which was the best weapon she had.

[Applause] Announcer: Yeah, that was reminiscent of Billie Jean at her very best.

Howard: And Chrissy--was like she went off a cliff.

Announcer: Well-played.

[Applause] Evert: The momentum switched to her.

She started playing better after that moment.

Announcer: Yes.

Announcer 2: What a shot that was.

And how can she find the energy?

In the length of time this match has gone on, she seems to have picked up her game, she seems to be moving faster and faster.

Narrator: With the distraction knocking Evert off her game, King took full advantage.

[Applause] Announcer: And Billie Jean King, 5 times Wimbledon champion, at the moment playing as well as she's ever done in her life, I think.

Narrator: King won 5 games in a row and clawed her way back.

She was within one point of reaching a seventh Wimbledon final.

Announcer: Match point for Mrs. King.

Announcer: It's over.

That's it.

[Applause] The resource, the will, the determination, the pride--everything coming out when it really mattered.

Narrator: With her fiercest rival out of the way... Announcer: The crowd settles for the women's final.

Narrator: two days later, King was in the final, up against Evonne Goolagong Cawley and one match away from retiring in singles tennis as a Wimbledon great.

And Billie Jean King being Billie Jean King, she wasn't going to hang around.

Announcer: Ooh, what a finishing shot.

6-love, 6-1, so Billie Jean King wins what she maintains will be her last singles appearance.

Narrator: In one of the most devastating displays ever seen on Centre Court, King won the title in two straight sets, losing just one game in a record-breaking 39 minutes, the shortest final in modern Wimbledon history.

King: If I could have just concentrated on tennis, I would have won more, but we probably wouldn't have professional tennis.

Evert: The brilliance of Billie Jean King is she's way ahead of her time.

That was hard for me to understand as a teenager, but thank God for her, for our sport; it should thank God for her.

[Whistling and applause] King: I think it's really important that a person looks in the mirror and decides "How do you want to remember yourself?"

[Applause] Announcer: Superb volleying by Billie Jean there.

Man: And how do you want to remember yourself?

Myself?

I'm not finished yet.

If I looked in the mirror, I think--I'd think I'm on the right course.

Announcer: And now the great climax, the men's final, Connors playing Ashe.

Narrator: The following day, Arthur Ashe was hoping to be the first Black men's player to win the greatest prize in tennis.

[Applause and whistling] [Cheering] Announcer: So a tremendous cheer as they come out for the 1975 final.

[Whistling] Narrator: Now nearly 32, Ashe was in his first Wimbledon final and knew this might be his last chance, but his opponent was his old foe, world number-one Jimmy Connors.

In their 3 previous meetings, Connors had won every time.

Announcer: I don't think Arthur Ashe isn't a great player--of course he is--but I wonder, in fact, whether he has the speed and reflexes and the variety of shot and tactics to contain this explosive bullet.

Man: Have some quiet, please.

Ashe: Well, I'm looking forward to today.

Um, it's something I've been preparing for, in a sense, all my life.

But there's no doubt that Jimmy Connors is in tremendous form.

He seems to be getting better, more sort of astonishingly destructive with every round.

He's a very good tennis player, on top of it all, yes.

Narrator: Turning up the heat on the rivalry was the fact that Connors was suing Ashe for libel, in part for calling him brash, arrogant, and unpatriotic.

Ashe: We're not the best of friends.

We just don't get along at all.

Official: Are you ready, gentlemen?

Connors to serve.

Quiet, please.

Play.

[Applause] 15-love.

Narrator: With Connors at the top of his game, on the eve of the match, Ashe and his team hatched a plan.

Johnnie Ashe: He called me from London the night before and he said, "You know, I'm playing in the finals tomorrow," and I said, "Yeah."

I said, "Well, how are you approaching this?"

He says, "I don't know yet."

Dell: Arthur said to me, "I'd like to go to the Playboy Club "and have a quiet dinner, play a little blackjack," and we really spent the night trying to talk about how to beat Connors.

So we decided that he ought to attack Connors in a totally different way.

[Applause] Dell: Jimmy was a counterpuncher, so we said to Arthur, "Number one, hit the ball soft on his forehand side."

[Applause] "When you're not giving him much power, you have to generate your own speed, so you're down there digging out the balls a lot."

Official: Game to Ashe.

[Cheering and applause] "And when you're serving, he's a left-hander.

"Serve him really wide in the deuce court.

Swing him way out."

[Applause] Announcer: Arthur Ashe, whose serve-volley tactic has never gone better in his life, I'm sure.

Dell: "And then the third thing, you know, Connors closes "very quickly in the net, comes in very fast.

Use the lob.

Lob him a lot."

Announcer: Game and match.

[Whistling and applause] King: I was actually physically in the stands to watch Ashe versus Connors.

[Applause] Arthur totally played a game style that was so different from what he usually did.

Announcer: Oh.

Official: Game for Ashe.

Ashe leads by 5 games to one.

Narrator: Traditionally a big hitter, Ashe was returning softly, playing drop shots and lobbing... Announcer: Oh, I say, that's a--that's a really crude shot.

Narrator: outwitting Connors.

Announcer: That, to me, looked like an extremely nervous shot, so this really is a sensational opening by Arthur Ashe.

To go out into an arena and play the most important match of your life totally contrary to your natural style is possibly the most difficult thing to do in sport.

Official: Game and first set.

[Cheering and applause] Narrator: To the Centre Court crowd's surprise, Ashe dominated the first set, winning, 6-1.

Announcer: Here we are.

Now, what is this young boy, this champion, made of?

Official: Ashe to serve in the second set.

Man: Come on, Jimmy, let's go!

Official: Out.

[Applause] Announcer: Champion looking rather disturbed.

McDonald: At one point, people got quite confused about what was going on... [Applause] and they thought Jimmy Connors is not really trying as much as he should here.

People kept urging him on, saying, "Come on, play up!"

Official: 30-15.

Man 2: Arthur!

[Crowd laughs] Narrator: Connors, who hadn't lost a set yet, was now two sets down and facing defeat.

Official: Game and second set to Ashe, 6 games to one.

Ashe leads by two sets to love.

Announcer: Mrs. Connors in the center of the picture, very worried.

Jimmy is reading a letter from his mother, which gives him great confidence.

[Whistling and applause] Well, he was stunned in the first two sets.

I mean, he was like somebody had hit him in the stomach.

At first, he was disgusted, and then he became very agitated.

Narrator: But Connors was a champion and refused to stay down for long.

Announcer: Great service.

[Applause] Official: Deuce.

Announcer: Well-played.

Dell: Connors is a tremendous fighter.

I mean, he's one of the great competitors in the sport.

Announcer: Ooh.

[Applause] So, set point for Connors.

[Cheering and applause] Official: Game and third set to Connors.

Narrator: Connors edged the third set by the narrowest of margins, winning 7-5.

Connors: Ah!

[Applause] Announcer: Suddenly the champion really bursts into life.

Explosive game, that.

Narrator: Heading into the fourth, Conners looked to have gained the upper hand.

Watching it, I said to myself, "Arthur's mind's wandering."

Official: Game, Connors.

[Applause] Connors leads by 3 games to love in the fourth set.

Johnnie Ashe: But, under the circumstances, he'll come back to his senses, he'll come back to what he knows he's supposed to do.

Announcer: And just meditating there, as he says he often does in a match.

[Applause and cheering] [Applause] Official: Game for Ashe.

Announcer: Really are watching a tremendous battle here.

[Cheering and applause] Official: Three games all in the fourth set.

Narrator: In a tense fourth set, Ashe regained momentum and brought the match to within one championship point of his first Wimbledon title.

[Crowd cheering] Announcer: So, to championship point for Arthur Ashe.

[Crowd cheering] Announcer: That's it, and he's done it.

He really has done it.

[Applause] Official: Game, set, and match to Ashe, 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Mathabane: There were celebrations like you could never imagine.

Announcer: A man of vision, a man of character, and here he is, at last the Wimbledon champion.

Mathabane: Connors was the brawn... and he was the brain... and so you can just imagine, in my mind and in the minds of countless young Black men, realizing the brain of a Black person can find a way to accomplish miracles.

Announcer: The first Black player to win the men's Wimbledon singles title since it all started in 1877.

Narrator: In one extraordinary weekend, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe had advanced social change on the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon.

Does it mean anything at all, being the first colored man player to win the title here?

Oh, sure it does, yeah.

What does it mean to you?

Could you explain?

Well, having grown up in a segregated environment in the South, I know what it's like to be stepped on, so I know what it's like.

Also, to see some Black hero do well, you know, in the face of adversity.

King: First Black man to ever win.

No one had ever done it before.

That's huge.

One last question, Arthur.

How's your form for the first dance at the ball tonight with the lady champion?

You know, I've never danced with Billie Jean, but I look forward to it.

Heh heh!

King: We come from different places, but we both continued to improve this world, yeah, the both of us, and we did get along at the-- when we had time together.

Then we became very close, and I understood him better and I think he understood me better.

"Gods Of Tennis" is available on Amazon Prime video