Tennis legend calls for major change to sport and also wants names on back of shirts
ONE of tennis’ GOATs has called for the sport to CHANGE its iconic scoring system.
Billie Jean King, 80, is one of the biggest names in the history of tennis.
She won 39 Grand Slams – 12 in singles, 16 in doubles and 11 in mixed – and was one of the founding nine members of the WTA Tour.
However, she has certainly ruffled a few feathers among the traditionalists by suggesting how tennis can continue to be popular among future generations – especially amid the rise in padel.
And that included ripping up the famous and unique 15-30-40 scoring format – which is thought to have started by using a clock face to keep tabs – and scrapping using “love” to mean zero.
King told BBC Sport: “I want to make it easy for fans.
“I think it should be 1-2-3-4 not 15-love, 30-love.
“If you are a kid – I didn’t come from tennis – what the heck does that mean?
“If we want to get eight, nine, 10, 11, 12-year-old children involved in our sport, we have to make it accessible to them – not to a 60-year-old fan.”
Padel, though, uses the same scoring system as tennis and has not stopped a huge wave of new players and fans.
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King did not elaborate on the points, games and sets format – which can throw up incredible drama and mini-battles within the context of epic matches.
But her suggestion of the major shift to simplify the scoring did not go down well with supporters who labelled the call “ridiculous”.
One said: “Ridiculous idea! I started watching tennis at maybe seven years old and ‘got’ the scoring system after the first game or two – it’s not complicated!”
Another wrote: “This is nonsense Billie. Future tennis players are not put off by a scoring system… they just want to hit a ball and ‘play like Rafa’ or any other tennis player they may have seen.”
A third added: “I’ve followed tennis since I was five or six and understood the scoring straight away from watching one match, don’t need to fix something that’s not broken.”
A fourth replied: “Ironically, in wanting to make tennis easier for kids, she’s showing her age… As a child, after watching one game your brain is plastic enough to figure out the scoring system, you don’t question the logic.”
And a final user commented: “Of all the issues facing tennis, the scoring system within games is about 547th on the list.”
King also has another bold idea to help new fans get into the sport.
Tennis stars’ new careers
PLENTY of tennis stars have stayed involved in the sport since retiring.
But others pursued very different careers. Here are some of the best…
- I reached French Open and Wimbledon finals as a teenager but I quit to become a nun
- I won Wimbledon mixed doubles with my sister but got fed up with English weather so now run luxury B&B
- I was tipped for stardom aged 12 but retrained to become high-flying lawyer
- I earned £9m and won French Open before setting up bistro with Brazilian model girlfriend
- I’m last Frenchman to win Roland Garros, now I’m singer with six albums hitting No1 in charts
- I’m former world No1 but quit aged 29 – instead I went on to play professional poker and golf
- I was destined for the top but swapped lobs for labs as award-winning Harvard physicist
The six-time Wimbledon singles champ added: “I would like to see names and numbers on the back of the shirt in tennis.”
Rugby and cricket are among the sports to follow in the footsteps of football in recent years by adopting the names on shirts to help identify players.
Elsewhere, King had some strong words of warning for both Emma Raducanu and the hypocritical stars moaning about the gruelling length of the season while also playing lucrative, money-spinning exhibitions.
The American continued: “If Emma can stay healthy long enough, then we’ll see how good she is.
“But if you keep getting injured, you never get that momentum going. If you’ve been injured – really injured – I always want to give a player at least a year and a half to recover.
“It takes a lot to come back from injury and you have got to be very patient.
“Katie Boulter, people should pay attention to her.
“I’ve been watching her for about five years now and every year she has got a little bit better – I don’t think people appreciate her enough. She’s got quicker, she’s got more consistent.”
King went on: “It’s so interesting how they always complain it’s too much.
“They’ve been doing this forever by the way – but then they get a month off and they go play exhibitions.
“I go, ‘Really?’ You guys said you needed the rest. Don’t tell me you think the season is too long.
“I know if there’s enough money you go and you play. It’s a really tough argument for me to listen to the players.”
Wimbledon ditching line judges a double fault for British tennis
By Joshua Jones
THE absence of line judges at Wimbledon will be a sad sight.
For as long as I can remember, the men and women decked out in their Ralph Lauren outfits have been part of the furniture at the All England Club.
Yes, they provided some mild entertainment on the court when one would call “fault” with plenty of extra, and unnecessary, gusto and volume that boomed around Centre Court, prompting a snigger from the fans.
Then there was the ongoing game of dodgeball they had to play when a big serve nailed a mammoth ace down the line and they had to take rapid evasive action or take a whack to the top of the head.
And challenges provided some audience participation, excitedly joining in the clapping countdown before the inevitable “oooh” when the graphic showed just how close the ball was to landing in or out.
Purely objectively, Wimbledon’s decision to replace line judges with Hawk-Eye Live makes total sense.
The accuracy and consistency of calls in real-time will speed things up, save time and should mark the end of arguments over the tight incorrect calls – well, until the technology malfunctions.
And Wimbledon’s hand was somewhat forced to ditch tradition for their standing in tennis.
The Australian Open and US Open already use electronic line calling and the ATP Tour is adopting Hawk-Eye Live across all of its tournaments from 2025.
Wimbledon’s refusal to comply would leave them lagging behind and exposed to the threat of needless controversy over human error.
But the impact – as is so often the case in these decisions – has ramifications further down, below the surface with very little impact on Wimbledon’s Championships or the players.
It is on the line judges themselves.
Approximately 300 officials – aged from 18 to 80 – covered more than 650 matches at Wimbledon.
A fraction travel internationally with the circuit but the vast majority of those are part-time line judges based in the UK, earning up to £180 per day to work at the prestigious tournament and their chance to play their part at Wimbledon.
For many, they will help out at British tournaments throughout the year, spurred on by the possibility of taking to the lawns of the All England Club.
But it is understood many of those officials would be reluctant to work at the lower-level tournaments without the carrot of Wimbledon dangling in the summer.
That in turn will put a major stumbling block in the pathway for British tennis umpires, who grind up through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
Like football with referees, tennis needs umpires and line judges.
So the inability to call “out” at Wimbledon could prove to be a major “fault” for the future of the UK’s tennis officials and therefore the state of the sport on these shores.