Editing Women's Tennis Association (section)

==Early history==
Tennis's [[Open Era]], in which professional players were allowed to compete alongside amateurs, began in 1968. Billie Jean King was a high ranking tennis player in the late 1960s who won several titles and was interviewed in the media.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Lissa |title=Nike is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports |url=https://archive.org/details/nikeisgoddess00liss |url-access=registration |date=1998 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nikeisgoddess00liss/page/65 65] |isbn=9780871137265 |edition=1}}</ref> The first Open Tournament was the [[British Hard Court Championships]] in [[Bournemouth]]. Later that year at the first Open Wimbledon, the prize fund difference was 2.5:1 in favor of men. King won £750 for taking the title, while [[Rod Laver]] won £2,000. The total purses of both competitions were £14,800 for men and £5,680 for women. Confusion also reigned as no one knew how many Open Tournaments there were supposed to be. The tournaments that did not want to provide prize money eventually faded out of the calendar, including the US Eastern Grass Court circuit with stops at [[Merion Cricket Club]] and Essex county club.

There were two professional tennis circuits in existence at the start of the Open Era: [[World Championship Tennis]] (WCT), which was for men only, and the [[National Tennis League]] (NTL). [[Ann Haydon-Jones|Ann Jones]], [[Rosie Casals]], [[Françoise Dürr]], and Billie Jean King joined NTL. King was paid $40,000 a year, Jones was paid $25,000, and Casals and Durr were paid $20,000 each. The group played established tournaments, such as the US Open and Wimbledon. But the group also organised their own tournaments, playing in the South of France for two months. The [[International Tennis Federation]] (ITF) then imposed several sanctions on the group: the women were not allowed to play in the [[Wightman Cup]] in 1968 and 1969 and the [[USTA|USLTA]] refused to include Casals and King in their rankings for those years.
[[File:Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs 1973.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Billie Jean King]] and [[Bobby Riggs]] in 1973, the same year King founded WTA.]]
By the 1970s the pay differential had increased. King said "Promoters were making more money than women. Male tennis players were making more money. Everybody was making more money except the women<ref>{{cite web |title=Woman |quote=an adult female human being: She's a really nice woman. A woman and two men were arrested the day after the explosion. Women first got the vote in Britain in 1918. She is Ireland's first woman (= female) president |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/woman |website=Cambridge Dictionary |access-date=1 June 2020}}</ref>". In 1969, ratios of 5:1 in terms of pay between men and women were common at smaller tournaments. By 1970 these figures had increased to up to 12:1.

Billie Jean King and Cynthia Starr wrote in their book, ''We Have Come a Long Way'', in 1988, "The women were being squeezed financially because we had no control in a male-dominated sport. Men owned, ran and promoted the tournaments, and because many of them were former players themselves, their sympathies lay with the male players, who argued vociferously that most of the money should be theirs."<ref>Drucker, J. (9 March 2020), [https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2020-03-09/2020-03-09_2020-03-09_the_original_nine_the_beginning_of_womens_pro_tennis.html The Original Nine: The beginning of women’s pro tennis] ''www.usopen.org'', accessed 21 November 2021</ref> The low point in women's pay inequality came before the US Open in 1970. The [[Pacific Southwest Championships]] directed by [[Jack Kramer]], had announced a 12:1 ratio in the prize money difference between what males and females would win. This tournament provoked the top 9 woman tennis players to take a stand for equality. "These woman became known as the Original 9".<ref name=Mignucci>Mignucci, M. [https://www.bustle.com/p/the-history-of-tennis-original-9-the-equal-pay-movement-in-sports-18795697.html The History of Tennis Original 9: the Equal Pay Movement in Sports] ''www.bustle.com'', accessed 21 November 2021</ref> They did not play in the Los Angeles tournament and instead wanted to create their own tennis tournament.

Several female players contacted [[Gladys Heldman]], publisher of ''[[World Tennis Magazine]]'', and stated that they wanted to boycott the event. Although Heldman advised against it, she did help them put together their own tournament in Houston which would not take place until after the US Open. The [[1970 Houston Women's Invitation]] for nine women players was formed.<ref name=WTATour /><ref name="WTAHistory" /> Heldman was friends with Joseph Cullman, CEO and chairman of Phillip Morris, who secured the new tournament. The tournament was a success and the women found footing, "so, at the bidding of the Original 9, Heldman – who had secured backing from Philip Morris's Virginia Slims cigarette brand for her Houston Invitational – went back to her friend, Philip Morris chairman Joe Cullman III, to see if the company would support a circuit of some kind. Delighted by the publicity splash from Houston, Cullman was only too keen to give the women what they needed: financial backing, to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars, and the Virginia Slims name as title sponsor for a circuit in 1971."<ref name=Mignucci/>

The [[International Tennis Federation|International Lawn Tennis Federation]] (ILTF) began dropping several women's competitions from the tournaments it presided over. For example, in 1970, the ILTF sanctioned 15 men-only tournaments, all of which had previously been combined events.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=Joanne Lannin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f957-IG2HckC|title=Billie Jean King: Tennis Trailblazer|date=January 1999|publisher=Lerner Publications|isbn=0-8225-4959-X|page=57|chapter=Fighting for Equality|access-date=12 September 2008}}</ref> The [[Toyota International Series ]], which would later absorb the [[ILTF Women's Grand Prix]] circuit, and later merge with the [[Virginia Slims World Championship Series]] eventually become the [[WTA World Tour]] in 1995. The circuit was composed of 19 tournaments, all based in the United States (one in [[Puerto Rico]]), and prize money totaled $309,100.<ref name=WTATour /><ref name="WTAHistory" />

In 1973 the US Open tennis tournament became the first Grand Slam tournament to award the same prize money for women as men. The Australian Open would become the second Grand Slam offering equal prize money following suit in 1985 although the tournament awarded men more money from 1996 to 2000 before equal prize money returned in 2001. The French Open offered equal prize money for champions in 2006. In 2007 both Wimbledon and the French Open both offered equal prize money.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smart |first1=Barry |title=The Sport Star: Modern Sport and the Cultural Economy of Sporting Celebrity |date=15 September 2005 |page=173 |isbn=9780761943518 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxU9VOuPTdYC&dq=australian+open+ends+equal+prize+money&pg=PA173}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Couret |first1=Jean-Paul |title=French Open to award equal prize money |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tennis-french-prizes/french-open-to-award-equal-prize-money-idUSL169764320070316 |date=16 March 2007 |work=Reuters}}</ref>
[[File:Nadia Petrova (5995927760).jpg|thumb|As the sport has grown over the years, more sponsorships help to keep the sport viable.]]
The WTA Tour sold television rights of all its tournaments as a single package, reaching large audiences around the world. "The '80s energized the popularity base, taking tennis out of country clubs and landed estates into public parks and arenas. It became a sport, in contrast to an amenable pastime."<ref>Allen, J. (15 October 2009). [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/272777-golden-era-of-the-80s-tennis-soars-in-popularity Golden Era of the 80’s: Tennis Soars in Popularity] ''bleacherreport.com'', accessed 21 November 2021</ref>

"From those first steps in Houston in 1970 to the current WTA Tour, with tournaments in 33 countries and total prize money of $139 million (in 2018); from a prize pot 10 times lower than the men at the Grand Slams in 1970 to parity in 2007 and ever since, women's tennis has become (almost) the equal of its male counterpart. And they did it themselves, which also explains why their governance is still independent today."<ref>Bonnaud, P.(19 May 2020). [https://www.tennismajors.com/our-features/long-from-our-features/the-wta-how-women-got-their-revenge-and-their-rights-248161.html The WTA: how women for their revenge and their rights] ''www.tennismajors.com'', accessed 21 November 2021</ref>