Billie Jean King: Still Promoting, Still Blazing Trails

She's won 39 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed; played in the possibly the most important tennis match in history against Bobby Riggs in 1973, and is one of the most recognized people in and outside the world of sports.

I am of course talking about Billie Jean King. Even though her accomplishments on the tennis court are amazing, it's what she does off the court and after her playing days ended that will cement her legacy. She's been named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, Life magazine counts her among their "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" and she has won both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

While the home of the U.S. Open will be forever known as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Billie Jean wants to keep looking forward at ways to promote tennis and women's sports for years to come.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Billie Jean on a conference call with other journalists when she announced that her World Team Tennis will hold their finals weekend at the Family Circle Cup Tennis Center this July in Charleston, SC.

Billie Jean explained why she still gets excited for World Team Tennis. "Each match is one set and no-ad scoring," she stated. The action really is fast and furious and it includes her favorite event, mixed doubles. "Mixed could've been the event if it was marketed properly," she added. "Some of my best memories are playing mixed and it would be great to have more events offer mixed doubles."

Having the WTT finals in Charleston brings back Family Circle Cup memories for King. She lost to Rosie Casals back in 1973 when the women's tennis tour got its start. "Rosie won $30,000 and that is like a million dollars today," she stated. King also called Charleston a "wonderful destination" and feels this is the "beginning of something fantastic."

The talk then turned to current world #1 Caroline Wozniacki and the crop of youngsters that re coming up. King admitted she hasn't watched enough of the Dane to comment on how she would fare agains the greats of the game.

As far as the state of American tennis King said since tennis is now world-wide game, we have to identify players at a young age and encourage them to play tennis. "15-years old is too late to identify our players," proclaimed King. King said the new generation of tennis players doesn't like the word "lesson". "Kids today don't want to play tennis against a friend, they want to play with a friend," she added. King says American tennis has reached a critical point, "We have to get kids to compete; McEnroe, Connors, the Williams' Sisters, they all competed."

King also thinks that the Tennis Channel and social media are both great for tennis. Through all the years, you can still see that Billie Jean loved sports and did all she could to make sports a part of our everyday lives. She still "gets it" in a time when many others don't.