In a Fitting Tribute, the Fed Cup Is Renamed After Billie Jean King

Bud Collins, the celebrated tennis commentator and historian, once described the Fed Cup as “a splendid idea with a lame name.”

“He did? That’s perfect,” said Billie Jean King, laughing hard. “I wish he were still alive. He would enjoy this.”

That is because the “lame name” is no more.

The International Tennis Federation is renaming the annual team competition the “Billie Jean King Cup.”

“I was and am still in shock,” said King in an interview with The New York Times before Thursday’s announcement.

The event began in 1963 after decades of lobbying and was intended to be the equivalent for women of the Davis Cup, the men’s team event that began in 1900 and was named for its creator, Dwight Davis.

The women’s event was called “The Federation Cup” in honor of its creator: the International Tennis Federation. After a marketing survey, the name was shortened in 1995 to “Fed Cup,” which clearly did not require a great deal of bold thinking.

Twenty-five years later, the I.T.F. seems to have finally gotten it right.

The Billie Jean King Cup becomes the first major annual global team sports event to be named for a woman, according to the I.T.F. The Uber Cup, a major biennial badminton team competition for women, dates to 1956 and is named for Betty Uber, a former British star.

“I understand this is such a privilege, but I really want to make a difference, too,” King said. “And of course now I’m racking my brain. How can we move this forward on our goals and our ambitions?”

The Fed Cup has suffered through the years, not only from a “lame name” but from repeatedly changing its format. It did so again this year, shifting to a 12-team finals in Budapest, which was ultimately canceled because of the coronavirus. The event was rescheduled for 2021.

Several women’s tennis players would have been worthy of having the cup named for them, including Chris Evert and her friendly archrival Martina Navratilova, who won it with both Czechoslovakia and the United States.

But King, who won the cup seven times as a player, has been a great player and great campaigner: spearheading the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association and World TeamTennis and pushing for equal rights and equal prize money.

She was also part of the United States team that won the inaugural Federation Cup in 1963.

“Who better to name a competition after than someone who’s really revolutionized women’s sport”” said David Haggerty, the I.T.F. president, in a telephone interview. “She was a champion on the court. She was a pioneer off the court.”

At 76, King still brims with energy and ideas, and she believes a woman’s name going on the cup should not be perceived as simply a positive move for women.

“When a woman does something, people always think we do it for women,” she said. “When a guy does something, they never say they did it for the guys. And so one of the changes I hope I can talk about more and more is that I would like people to think when you see a woman’s name, you don’t think they just did it for women or they’re only representing women. We are representing people, just like you would with the guys. You don’t go up to John McEnroe and say thanks for what you did for men’s tennis. You say thanks for what you did for tennis.”

She continued: “I want this Billie Jean King Cup to represent everyone, not just women. It really bothers me, and until we change that, you’re never going to have a woman president of the United States. It’s the way we think about women. We’ve got to stop it. Women are leaders for everyone. Men are leaders for everyone.”

King was quick to support the latest push to merge the men’s and women’s tours: an idea proposed again this year by Roger Federer during tennis’s five-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. The proposal, which generated buzz initially, has run into considerable resistance from other men’s players and looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.

But King still believes a merger would make tennis stronger and more visible in a Darwinian sports landscape. As an activist herself, she also embraces the activism she has seen from young players like Naomi Osaka.

Fifty years ago, King and eight other women — the so-called “Original Nine” — boycotted the Pacific Southwest Championships in Los Angeles in 1970 because of the disparity in men’s and women’s prize money. The women started their own event in Houston instead, risking suspension from American tennis authorities. The event led to the creation of a women’s tour sponsored by Virginia Slims.

Osaka, 22, won her second U.S. Open women’s singles title last week while campaigning for greater awareness of and justice for Black victims of violence, including police violence. She wore a mask bearing a different victim’s name for each of her seven matches during the Grand Slam tournament.

“I think it’s fantastic,” King said. “The difference is today you don’t lose your sponsors, in fact you probably get more sometimes, because the sponsors get behind you, which I love. And they love the fact the player stands for something more than just ‘oh I hit great backhands and forehands.’ But the biggest difference from the old days is technology, the phone, how you can communicate quickly, how you can mobilize quickly. We did not have that luxury. You truly can be much more your authentic self than the old days. They don’t have to be so careful. You know how thrilling that is for us? They are living our dream.”

King not only won the Federation Cup as a player, she won it once as a playing captain and three other times as a nonplaying captain. Her best team, perhaps anyone’s best women’s team, was in 1999. It included Serena and Venus Williams, Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport.

All of those players won at least three Grand Slam singles titles and reached the No. 1 ranking.

“What a team, oh my gosh,” King said. “And they were great as people, not just number ones.”

King was No. 1 herself, in a time when expert consensus determined the hierarchy, not a computer ranking system. She won 39 Grand Slam titles, 12 in singles and 27 in women’s and mixed doubles. She still considers herself a “team queen” above all, and she was there in the beginning in the Federation Cup.

She was just 19 in June 1963 for the first edition at Queen’s Club in London. There were 16 teams, and King helped the United States to the title with a 2-1 victory over Australia in the final, which because of rain was moved off the grass and played indoors on a slick wood surface.

King and her partner Darlene Hard defeated Lesley Turner and Margaret Smith (later Margaret Court) in thrilling decisive doubles match: 3-6, 13-11, 6-3.

“Darlene Hard was our number one player, she was our legend, and I was in the middle as number two,” King said. “And all week I kept saying to them, because I love history, ‘We have to win the first one, this is history being made. We have to, so years from now when we look at this cup, this Federation Cup, we’re going to see our names and see that we were the first ones to win it.’ That was my mantra all weekend, driving them crazy. I felt so strongly about it.”

Fifty-seven years later, King’s name is not only on the cup. It is the name of the cup.

Bud Collins can rest in peace, but King is still intent on making the right kind of ruckus.