I don't get to write much about tennis here given that much of the tennis news comes from the professional ranks. So even though this isn't much of a story, I still wanted to mention that Serena Williams, who just won her 10th Grand Slam title down in Australia this past weekend (and in doing so become the highest-earning female athlete ever) gave a shout-out not only to Billie Jean King but also Title IX.
BJK and both of the Williams sisters are close and they definitely seem to have learned from her activism, but neither Serena nor Venus directly benefitted from Title IX in terms of getting an opportunity to play given the somewhat unique road elite junior tennis players take. Nevertheless, it was nice that Serena sees the larger picture: the growth in numbers of women playing sports and to credit BJK and Title IX for that.
It's certainly a switch from the response another American female tennis player gave in her phenom days. When Jennifer Capriati was asked about Title IX, she had to say she didn't know what it was.
