"I was always in the tennis business-from 1968. I was in tournaments and also on World Team Tennis teams as well"

“Always in the tennis business, from 1968” signals a self-definition that stretches far beyond winning matches. The date matters: 1968 marks the start of the Open Era, when tennis became fully professional. Aligning herself with that pivot, she emphasizes not just athletic participation but stewardship, treating tennis as an industry to be built, marketed, and modernized.

The pairing of “tournaments” with “World Team Tennis” captures two parallel tracks she navigated. Traditional tournaments represented the established, individual-centric circuit, with rankings, prize money battles, and global prestige. World Team Tennis, by contrast, was a new model: coed teams, a league format, innovations designed to attract broader audiences, and a business strategy that reframed tennis as entertainment without sacrificing competitive integrity. Being on WTT teams signaled a willingness to experiment with format, schedule, and presentation, colored courts, music, fan engagement, well before such ideas were mainstream in sports.

Calling it the “tennis business” also underscores labor, governance, and equity. It evokes negotiation rooms as much as locker rooms: forging sponsorships, organizing tours, advocating for equal pay, and helping to create structures, like a players’ association, that would give athletes agency. The statement suggests continuity and resilience: from the moment the sport professionalized, she chose to operate at the junction of performance and policy, entrepreneurship and competition.

There’s also a hint of tension resolved through action. The traditional tour often resisted innovations like WTT, and balancing league commitments with tournament schedules required logistics, diplomacy, and risk tolerance. Embracing both worlds reflects a strategy: secure legitimacy within the existing hierarchy while simultaneously building alternatives that could push the sport forward.

Ultimately, the line reframes legacy. It is not only about trophies; it’s about tenure as a maker of the modern game, player, promoter, organizer, teammate, owner, someone who never stepped outside tennis, because shaping its future was the work itself.