Now is the perfect time to talk about my tennis heroines. Mostly the women of the seventies – Billie Jean King, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratalova. I also enjoyed watching the men champions – Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg, but the women were all for me.
Whenever I think of tennis I think of how fabulous they were and how I loved to watch Wimbledon every summer (though got fed up sometimes because the children’s programs got shifted to BBC2).
I loved Bille Jean and Martina long before I heard they were lesbians or even knew that I was. Perhaps it was my psychic ability, or maybe the muscles and grunting that did it.
I remember watching Martina in black and white when she had dark hair and no-one could pronounce her name. Tennis was the only women’s sport that was televised to such a serious extent, and Martina was the top.
Everyone loved Bjorn Borg because he was like Bjorn from Abba and looked like a bit of a hippie with his long hair and beard. And everyone loved Jimmy Connors because he was a wholesome American boy-next-door. I think McEnroe spoiled that image but I’m not talking about the ‘you cannot be serious’ guy in this post.
Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room
Filed under: Celebrities, Entertainment, Gay&Lesbian, Telly/TV, sport | Tagged: Martina Navratalova, sport, tennis, wimbledon
