Gods of Tennis: How a generation of tennis players changed the world in the 1970s and 1980s

A new BBC documentary series – Gods of Tennis – takes viewers back to the 1970s and 1980s to explore how a generation of megastars truly put the sport on the map.

Tracy Austin, who won the US Open in 1979 aged just 16, remembers Borg being treated by fans as if he were one of the Beatles.

Commercial success followed, and some players used their increased profile to help drive social change.

Austin describes Ashe and King as “incredible champions” but adds what they did off the court was “probably bigger”.

Across three hour-long episodes, Gods of Tennis speaks to the players who were there.

Here are just a few takeaways…

Ashe promoted integration in South Africa

In 1973, Ashe was the first black professional to play in the South African Championships. It came at a time when the country was still under Apartheid rule.

Ashe, who grew up under segregation in Virginia in the United States, made his participation contingent on one stipulation.

“He demanded the tournament had to be integrated,” says South African author Mark Mathabane.

For the first time in South African history, Mathabane adds, black people were able to play and spectate at the tournament.

Ashe may have been beaten in the final by fellow American Jimmy Connors, but to Mathabane he was the real winner.

“He made numberless black people in South Africa realise Apartheid is based on a lie,” he says.

Already a US Open winner by that stage, Ashe went on to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

The ‘Battle of the Sexes’ turned ‘hobbies’ into ‘careers’

When Billie Jean King won the 1972 US Open, her prize money was $10,000. The men’s champion – Ilie Nastase – took home $25,000.

The following year, King formed the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), with a mission to achieve equal pay.

Later in 1973 came an unlikely episode in that campaign – a bizarre, one-off match known as ‘The Battle of The Sexes’ in which King, 29, took on 55-year-old former men’s world number one (and self-proclaimed male chauvinist) Bobby Riggs.

Austin told…