The full version of this article first appeared in the June/July 2023 issue of Australian Tennis Magazine, one of the world’s longest-running tennis publications. For more in-depth features, news and analysis, you can subscribe now.
June 2023 marks 50 years since the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association. The Gloucester Hotel in London, on the eve of Wimbledon 1973, was the venue for the first coming together of women players under a single banner, rather than being divided by competing tours.
Although political point-scoring and tournament bans were not entirely relegated to the past, the WTA Tour thrived, almost from its inception, as a showcase for tennis as the richest, most global female sport. On the 50th anniversary of the WTA, a salute to 15 inspirational women (if only we had the space for 50!)
We celebrate five, in chronological order, in the third of…