San Diego Youth Tennis will get a financial boost Saturday when U.S. professional tennis legend Billie Jean King visits America’s Finest City for the “MatchPoint Ball.”
The 18th annual tennis gala will be held Downtown near Seaport Village at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in the Elizabeth Ballroom at 6 p.m. and will be hosted by KGTV Ch. 10 anchor Carol LeBeau.
The “MatchPoint Ball” will benefit the county’s YouthTennis San Diego outreach program that serves over 10,000 children annually ” including those at the George E. Barnes Family Junior Tennis Center in Point Loma.
YouthTennis San Diego’s main facility is located at Barnes Tennis Center on West Point Loma Boulevard.
“The Ball raises money for scholarships, operations of afterschool programs and operations of the Barnes Tennis Center,” said Kathy Willette, chair of the Foundation YouthTennis San Diego program, a separate entity that raises reserve funds for program operation. The YouthTennis San Diego program owns and operates the Barnes Center.
“Our interest is three-pronged,” Willette said. “The purpose of the program is education, physical development and social development.”
The program has been in existence for 53 years and has produced many successful collegiate players, including Alexandra Stevenson; two-time NCAA Champion Amber Lui; junior champions Bradley Klahn and Greg Herschman; Brandon Wai and national junior champion Steve Forman.
“If we produce a champion, that is great,” said Willette. “But our goal is in the social and physical development of our players.”
Saturday’s MatchPoint Ball will honor King, arguably one of the greatest players in professional tennis history and one of the pioneers of the women’s game.
King won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam doubles titles and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles in her illustrious career, including winning each of the four major singles tournaments as a dominant force in women’s tennis in the 1960s and ’70s.
She won the Australian Open (1968, 1969), the French Open (1972), Wimbledon (1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973 and 1975) and U.S. Open (1967, 1968, 1972, 1974). She also won doubles titles at Wimbledon (1961, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1979), at the U.S. Open (1964, 1967, 1974, 1978, 1980) and French Open (1962) and mixed doubles titles in all four major tournaments as well. She won the French (1967, 1970), Wimbledon (1967, 1971, 1972, 1974), U.S. (1967, 1971, 1972, 1976) and Australian Open (1968).
The Long Beach native co-founded the World Team Tennis League in 1974 and, along with Gladys Heldman, helped start the first women’s professional tour at Virginia Slims before retiring in 1983.
