American Tennis Pioneer Billie Jean King Comes Up With an Enticing Proposal As ATP and WTA Tours Look To Tread a Unified Path

There has always been speculation and requests from people watching tennis to merge the WTA and ATP tours so that players compete against other players without the bias of gender. This will also eliminate the disparity of pay and bring equality in the game just like a sport should have, Billie Jean King has also suggested this in the past.

However, nothing of this sort seems to be happening. And once again King decided to jump the rope and talk about bringing a tournament that allows both male and female players to compete together globally where the fight can be fair for everyone.

Billie Jean King brings the idea of having a world cup in tennis

Most of the sports around the globe have world cups. In these world cups, countries compete against other countries, and men and women are all in one team. King recently floated the idea in an interview with Euro Sport.

She said, “I think it’s really important to have a world cup for tennis. The whole world understands a world cup. They know it’s country versus country. I want us together. I always want the men and women together. I think we can enhance it and make more of a focus on us. I think people like it when we are all happy together.”

Her idea of having a world cup will not only make it more interesting for people as they cheer for their own country, but also men and women will get a chance to fairly compete against one another. And prove themselves as a player without the bias of gender in sports.

READ MORE: ‘I Love Women..’ – Before Getting Humbled by Billie Jean King, Controversial Tennis Star’s Scathing Remarks Show the Magnitude of Her Astounding Win

That said, the BJK Cup is also coming up soon. But this time things are going to be a little different at the tournament as 4 of the major female tennis players will not be a part of the tournament.

King’s tournament to happen without 4 major tennis players

BJK Cup is about to begin. But there is one player who is not allowed to attend the tournament, and that is world No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka. She has been banned from the tournament because Belarusians cannot play in view of the invasion of Ukraine.

Three other major players won’t be a part of the tournament. And those include Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff. They have decided to opt out of the tournament because they have their schedules all busy with the WTA Finals that are taking place in Cancun, Mexico only one week before the BJK Cup Finals begin in Spain.

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