Original 9

Les Original 9 sont un groupe de neuf joueuses de tennis professionnelles (7 Américaines et 2 Australiennes) qui se sont séparées des instances dirigeantes du tennis en 1970 pour lancer leur propre circuit professionnel de tennis féminin, le Virginia Slims Circuit, qui a ensuite évolué en 1973 pour devenir le WTA Tour.

Contexte

Depuis l'avènement en tennis de l'ère Open en 1968, femmes et hommes ne sont pas traités sur un pied d'égalité, les rétributions des premières pour leurs prestations sportives se réduisant à une fraction de celles des seconds (dix pour cent ou moins).

Gladys Heldman, fondatrice et directrice du magazine World Tennis, décide alors d'instaurer un circuit professionnel exclusivement féminin et autonome. Neuf joueuses, les Original 9, acceptent de la suivre dans ce projet en signant chacune auprès d'elle un contrat symbolique d'un dollar : Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Dalton, Valerie Ziegenfuss et Julie Heldman (fille de Gladys).

Rapidement, Gladys Heldman obtient l'appui financier du cigarettier Philip Morris et, le 25 septembre 1970, se tient à Houston, le tournoi de tennis féminin Virginia Slims Invitational doté de 7 500 dollars. C'est Rosie Casals qui remporte ce 1^er tournoi en battant en finale Judy Dalton. C'est un succès populaire même si les joueuses américaines (sept parmi les Original Nine) sont alors temporairement suspendues par l'USLTA avant que cette dernière n'intègre le nouveau circuit féminin dans ses propres structures.

Les 9 joueuses

Les neuf joueuses de tennis professionnelles sont les suivantes :

• Peaches Bartkowicz: Winner of the USA Girls under-18 national title three times in a row, equalling Sarah Palfrey's record. Bartkowicz had won Junior Wimbledon and had won medals at the 1968 Olympic Games exhibitions.
• Rosie Casals: The reigning Wimbledon Doubles and Mixed Doubles Champions in 1970. She had finished as the runner up in the Australian and French Opens in the doubles, and in the mixed doubles at the US Open. Also, Casals won the US Open doubles title, and in 1970 reached the final of the singles competition. Casals states "I got $3,750 when I lost the 1970 US Open final to Court, the last victim in her Grand Slam." When Casals was 18, Harry Hopman labeled her the best junior prospect in the world. She stated 40 years later, "Jeopardizing the chance to play Grand Slams was probably the riskiest part of going against the old establishment. What else were we risking? We were really second class citizens when we played at the sanctioned tournaments alongside the men, and that meant all tournaments. In that sense we didn't have a lot to lose. On the other hand, the Grand Slams were everything to us at that time."
• Judy Dalton: Had just completed a career Grand Slam in Women's doubles as she had won the US Open, the only title missing from her collection at that point. Dalton was part of Australia's winning Federation Cup team in 1970. "Before there was a Tour, I actually worked as an accountant when I wasn't playing tennis. In those days, the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia wouldn't let any of us—men or women—play more than six months of the year. These days that would be called restraint of trade!" On the money Dalton said, "I know exactly what I did with my prize money from Houston. My husband, David, and I had just bought a house in Melbourne, and I sent most of it home to help pay it off." With regard to the personal sanctions against her, she said, "I couldn't play with my Slazenger racquet, we couldn't play in tournaments. In fairness, Wilson was fantastic—they gave us all the stuff that we wanted and did what they could to help. From memory, I used Wilson racquets for two years."
• Julie Heldman: The daughter of the leader Gladys. Heldman was a three-time Canadian Junior Champion and a US junior champion. Heldman was a runner-up at one of the Olympic exhibitions to Bartkowicz. Heldman had won the prestigious Canadian and Italian Opens in the 1960s. Heldman in 1970 had her best run at a Grand Slam to date as she reached the semifinals of the French Open. Heldman, however, was injured and therefore did not participate in the competition. "That's my abiding memory of that time: the sense of solidarity and a step forward. I couldn't play because I had an elbow injury. My parents had just moved from New York to Houston, and I was in the new house manning the phones the night before the tournament was due to start. The women were calling and saying the USTA was threatening to suspend everybody. The morning the tournament was due to start, I didn't go to the site because I wasn't playing. But when I heard everyone had stood in solidarity I decided I would do the same, even if it meant being suspended too."
• Billie Jean King: Former Australian and US Open champion and three time Wimbledon champion. King was also the reigning Wimbledon doubles champion and the reigning French Open mixed doubles champion. At this stage in her career, King already had a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles and only needed the French Open to repeat the feat in singles play. King was considered the ring leader amongst the players.
• Kerry Melville: At just 23, had just broken into the world's top ten when she joined King and Heldman. In 1970, she also managed to reach the final of her home Slam, her first final, but lost to Margaret Court. Forty years later she stated, "Houston felt like the start of something, and I remember being excited. I was just a little ol' Aussie... I wanted a better deal, of course, but I wouldn't put myself in the feminist category. I went a lot by what Judy (Dalton) did; it was good having her around. I think my parents were a little concerned, but I felt that with Billie Jean we had a strong leader."
• Kristy Pigeon: Winner of Junior US Open and Junior Wimbledon titles in her career. Pigeon reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1968 and 1969. She was 20 years old when she took a stand against the establishment. She later stated, "I think a lot of those original true feminists were missing the point by burning bras. In a way, they didn't make nearly as many waves as we tennis players did. We demonstrated that as sportspeople we were as interesting as the men. Our competition was stimulating to watch and we could pull the people in. For me, that's a more powerful way of establishing equality."
• Nancy Richey: Two time singles Grand Slam champion and multiple doubles champ; she was 28 in 1970. Richey said 40 years later of the events, "I still feel the same way as I did then about the inequities. It was so unfair, we were so discriminated against. Some of the men players were upset that we were getting any of the prize money at the tournaments that were being held jointly. If the purse was $10,000, they were getting $8,500. It was that kind of ratio. And they were pretty vocal about it. They'd say, 'Well go out and get your own circuit and stop taking the money from us."
• Valerie Ziegenfuss: Reached the fourth round of the US Open in 1969 and the third round at Wimbledon in 1970. She won $300 for her loss to Casals.

Two other players withdrew from the event:
Patti Hogan withdrew because she did not want to take the risk and stand against the establishment.
Margaret Court, who, after completing her Grand Slam, had just lost in Charlotte to Chris Evert, who was 15 at the time, withdrew due to a left ankle injury which sidelined her for three months. She was replaced by Kristy Pigeon.

Création du circuit féminin unifié

Le succès du circuit Virginia Slims va donner raison aux Original 9. En 1971, le circuit compte déjà dix-neuf tournois parrainés par Virginia Slims pour une dotation financière totale de 309 100 dollars.

Création de la WTA

En juin 1973, alors que l’Angleterre attend impatiemment Wimbledon, une soixantaine de joueuses de tennis s’enferment dans une salle du Gloucester Hotel de Londres. Alors que leurs équivalents masculins ont créé l’ATP un an plus tôt, elles ont décidé, elles aussi, de se forger un destin commun. Au début de la réunion, Billie Jean King déclare : “Tant que nous n’avons pas créé une association de joueuses, nous ne sortons pas d’ici”. A l'issue de cette réunion de 2 heures, Billie Jean King crée la WTA en vue de défendre l'intérêt des joueuses et de rassembler un maximum d'épreuves féminines au sein d'une même compétition. Cette unification sera finalement effective en 1983.

Mise en place du classement WTA

Le 3 novembre 1975, quatre ans après que les Original 9 ont lancé le premier circuit professionnel féminin, la WTA publie le premier classement mondial féminin informatisé. Sans surprise, Chris Evert, qui domine largement le tennis depuis 1974, est la première joueuse à apparaître en tête de ce classement.

Entrée au Hall of Fame

En 2021, ces neuf joueuses intègrent collectivement le International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Voir aussi

Articles connexes

• WTA Tour
• Virginia Slims
• Gladys Heldman
• Billie Jean King