Women’s Tennis Association

The Women’s Tennis Association is the governing body of professional women’s tennis, founded in 1973. It organizes the WTA Tour and represents players’ interests.

WTA Tour: The Women’s Tennis Association’s international circuit of professional women’s tennis tournaments. It is the competition structure the WTA operates.
Billie Jean King: An American tennis champion and advocate for gender equality who helped found the WTA. Her organizing and leadership were central to the association’s creation.
Chris Evert: An American tennis champion who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and served as a leading voice among players. Her prominence helped give the WTA’s player constituency influence.
Equal prize money: The policy of awarding equal winnings to women and men in the same competition. The WTA has campaigned for equal prize money at major tennis events.
Association of Tennis Professionals: The organization that governs the men’s professional tennis tour and represents male players. The ATP runs the parallel men’s tour, while the WTA governs women’s professional competition.
WTA rankings: A system that ranks professional women tennis players from their results over a rolling period. Rankings determine tournament entry and seeding across the WTA Tour.
Original 9: Nine women tennis players who signed professional contracts with promoter Gladys Heldman in 1970. Their breakaway circuit helped lay the groundwork for the WTA.
Martina Navratilova: A Czech-American tennis champion who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and dominated women’s tennis in the 1980s. Her career illustrates the competitive stature the tour developed.
Battle of the Sexes: A 1973 exhibition tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, watched by a large television audience. Its cultural impact strengthened public attention to women’s tennis.
International Tennis Federation: The international governing body for tennis that oversees the sport’s rules and major team competitions. The ITF governs the wider sport, unlike the WTA’s focus on women’s professional tennis.

Linked from 10 pages