Women and golden era

Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, eight times US champion between 1915 and 1926, thought a woman should admit "that she is a woman and adopt a style of tennis play which will call for all the generalship and strength which she can claim. But not for more." Molla was wrong.

Today one would be hard-pressed to see a Williams sister waggle her finger at someone else and say "But not for more now!", or a jacked Jennifer Caprioti lose more blood on the court than Pete Sampras. The credit goes all around.

You can give the credit to Title IX, which, for the past 29 years, has made it illegal for Jeffery to get more playing time than Suzie. You can give credit to Martina Navratalova for issuing "get your weak rear in the gym" papers to Chris Evrett in the early 80's.

Let's not forget the past either. Billie Jean King said as much off the court as she did on it. Never to be forgotten is the proverbial murderer's row of women's rights; Sojurner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Staunton.

This new Golden Era of Women's sports goes a lot deeper than just tennis. It's all about encouragement and equal opportunity for all. All of this success in women's tennis and women's sports in general for that matter, would not

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I'm not even talking about your TV ratings. The rewards of a golden age in America. This year the women's final was featured in prime time instead of the men's final. However in the past four years US women have won a world championship or gold medal of some sort in all of those sports.

All of the sports I already mentioned (women's hockey, etc.

Wills-Lenglen was a great rivalry, and KingMargaret Court was a great rivalry too, but even King admits she couldn't powder the ball the way today's women can. There's never been a time when women's sports were this good. And no one since has survived without hitting hard. Sure a Marion Jones could tease people in the WNBA, but even she would know that if she lost her concentration for one second, that she would lose everything she worked so hard to gain. It's college ranks even have academic and recruiting scandals, which in itself, should be a pretty good indication to most that women's sports has come of age.

Living in today's world, it's scary to think that there was was a time when the talent was spread so thin that Babe Zahairius could traipse between two different sports and dominate both (golf and track).

What about the money? It's not there yet but it will be.

The women's World Cup in 1999 almost outdrew it's male counterpart at the ticket booths, with half the number of teams competing.

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