By Jerry Magee

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 18, 2007

In Flushing, N.Y., yesterday, they began inscribing the words “Billie Jean King National Tennis Center” above the portals of the site where the U.S. Open is to begin on Aug. 27.

King, meantime, was being lodged at a Comfort Inn in San Diego. She is to speak this evening at a gala at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel meant as a benefit for Youth Tennis San Diego and she has been offered a room there, but she has opted for more modest accommodations.

“I stay where the kids stay,” she said.

The World Team Tennis Junior Nationals began yesterday at the Barnes Tennis Center. The boys and girls who make up the 16 competing teams are being housed at a Comfort Inn, and if that's where they are, that's where arguably the most influential woman in the history of the women's game wants to be.

Women's tennis, indeed, women's anything, has a debt to this woman of 63 who might have done as much for women's rights in this country as anybody since Susan B. Anthony in the 1890s began her quest to win women the vote. The U.S. Tennis Association recognized King's role during the 2006 U.S. Open when it attached her name to its tournament site. Not long ago, King returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium to film a program for the Cartoon Network.

“It was empty, except for a few people,” King said of the stadium. “It was an amazing feeling. The USTA and I didn't get along in the old days, so it was even more meaningful to me that we should keep moving forward. I'm big on that. Still being alive, it was even more meaningful for me than had it happened posthumously. I remember when they dedicated the stadium to Arthur, I was thinking, 'I would rather have him alive.' ”

King's battle to improve the status of tennis is continuing, with what to her are some encouraging developments. Of what she termed “the traditional sports,” only tennis is experiencing an uptick in participation, she said, citing a 10 percent increase.

“Which is huge,” she said. “That's a good sign. Now the next sign is we've got to get more kids into our sport who can be top five in the world. When you're top five, it helps inspire others and it brings goodwill to this country. It's very important to have champions.”

To King, the best way to develop them is to introduce them to the WTT format that the then-Billie Jean Moffitt and Larry King founded in 1962. WTT recently completed its 32nd year. For longevity, it has exceeded the American Football League, the American Basketball Association and any soccer league in this country that one could name.

“But I wish we were further along,” King said. “We need to be in 'the system'; we're not in 'the system.' ”

Her reference, she said, was to “the sanctioned tournaments, the USTA, the ITF, and all that.”

The WTT format, including singles, doubles and mixed doubles, to King represents an ideal means of schooling players.

“I want kids, when they start to play, to play Team Tennis,” she said. “It's better for their socialization process and they will be able to develop their games by playing doubles, mixed and singles. It's about developing your game, not about points and money.

“Everybody is backward. The coaches, the parents and the kids all look at the points and the money instead of looking at getting better. It takes a long time to develop into a championship player. You've got to keep developing. You can't just win and have weaknesses when you're young.”

Play Team Tennis, don't focus merely on winning and get tough. It's what King is championing, that and bringing the men's and women's professional games under a single banner.

“America is a very wonderful country,” she said, “but it's also softer now. We have it so easy. Everything is so accessible. That's why our kids do everything. What we need are kids who are specialists, who identify with tennis and want to be No. 1, like I did.”

King said that the first day she picked up a racket at the Long Beach Park and Recreation Center, she wanted to be No. 1. “That first day,” she emphasized. “That's what we need, somebody with that passion.”

King said she can foresee the day when the Association of Tennis Professionals, serving men, and the Women's Tennis Association, serving women, will be united. During the 1960s, when the ATP was being founded, King said, she went to the organization's leaders.

“I said, 'You're going to include us, aren't you, the women?' ” King said. “They said, 'Absolutely not.' That's the only reason we started our own tour. The men and the women should have been together, had one association and one voice. It was a big mistake by the sport.”