
26 Apr 2006

Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer
A profile of the remarkable life and career of tennis legend Billie Jean King, both on and off the court.
As the BBC celebrates 90 years of covering Wimbledon, Sue Barker travels the globe to meet some of the legends who have graced the famous grass courts. Tennis royalty including Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rod Laver, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker and John McEnroe share memories and reflect on their own experiences at the iconic tennis tournament. These are their stories as never told before, emotional and self-deprecating, revealing how their lives and careers were changed by the Championships. For Sue herself, Wimbledon has been a big part of her life for nearly 50 years as a fan, player and broadcaster. She also meets the Duke of Kent, who is president of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and the Duchess of Cambridge, who this year takes on a new role as patron.
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26 Apr 2006

A profile of the remarkable life and career of tennis legend Billie Jean King, both on and off the court.

28 Aug 2013

In this exclusive first person account, Johnnie Ashe will relay this previously unknown chapter of his brother Arthur's legacy. Johnnie, five years Arthur's junior, returned from his first tour in Vietnam with the Marines. At the time, Arthur Ashe was a lieutenant in the Army working at West Point in data processing while fast becoming a rising star in the tennis world. When Johnnie was sent home however, Arthur suddenly became in danger of being sent to Vietnam. Johnnie volunteered to be sent back to the war in his brother's place so that Arthur could continue his budding tennis career. Johnnie would return home, and Arthur would go on to win the inaugural 1968 U.S. Open en route to a Hall of Fame career in tennis, made possible by his brother's selflessness.

02 Jul 2013

We know about the swing. We know about the swagger. But what most Americans don't know about Venus Williams is how she changed the course of her sport. In a stunning case that captured the European public beginning in 2005, Williams challenged the long-held practice of paying women tennis players less than their male counterparts at Wimbledon. With a deep sense of obligation to the legacy of Billie Jean King, Williams lobbied British Parliament, UNESCO and Fleet Street for financial parity. And it was her poignant op-ed piece in The London Times that convinced many people that the Wimbledon tournament organizers were "on the wrong side of history." Roland Garros and Wimbledon finally relented in 2007. That year at Wimbledon, Venus became the first women's champion to earn as much as the men's singles winner (Roger Federer). VENUS VS. chronicles Williams' fight for pay equality.
The story of Wimbledon tennis champ and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe

12 Aug 2023

Relive the most thrilling moments of Australia’s beloved tennis tournament in this chronicle of its ascent to top-seed status on the global stage.

16 Dec 2021

He was the first German to win Wimbledon and the youngest male player ever to do so – Boris Becker, the tennis legend. But on his way to the top, there were many obstacles, not least his own ambitions…

13 Oct 2024

No overview found

13 Jun 2023

Author Jay Caspian Kang’s astute, incisive directorial debut tells the story of Asian American tennis prodigy Michael Chang, the youngest player to win a men’s Grand Slam tournament.


A review of an enthralling 2023 Wimbledon Championships that was headlined by Carlos Alcaraz of Spain dethroning seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in an epic five-set men’s final. There is also be a look back at Marketa Vondrousova’s dream run to winning the ladies’ singles. British success was yet again secured in the wheelchair doubles as Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid secured a fifth title, while Neal Skupski claimed his first men’s doubles crown with Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof. History was made in the boys’ singles as Henry Searle became the first British winner since Stanley Matthews in 1962.

01 Jul 2018

The film intertwines Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's lives with their famed 2008 Wimbledon championship - an epic match so close and so reflective of their competitive balance that, in the end, the true winner was the sport itself.

14 Sep 2010

The first time Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova stepped onto a tennis court together, the world scarcely noticed. Only a few hundred spectators saw the pert 18-year-old beat the scrappy 16-year-old Czech in 1973. “I remember that she was fat,” Evert recalled. “She was very emotional on the court, whining if she didn't feel she was playing well. But I remember thinking, if she loses weight, we’re all in trouble.” Said Navratilova, “My goal was for her to remember my name.” Eighty matches later – amid the extraordinary growth of women’s tennis – Evert not only remembered, but became a tried and true friend and confidante, remarkable considering the two appeared to be polar opposites in upbringing, life styles and personal relationships. Through a series of personal conversations, this documentary will tell the story of one of the greatest one-on-one sports rivalries and capture these two extraordinary athletes’ views on tennis and an ever-changing world.
05 Jul 1995
A young, talented but penniless tennis player attracts the attention of an ex-champion who offers to train him. He works hard to achieve his meteoric rise, but loses sight of his familiar surroundings and falls in with the wrong friends.

25 Nov 2024

THE POWER AND THE GLORY tells Serena Williams’ remarkable story from a Compton prodigy to the greatest female tennis player of all time.

12 Jun 2022

Told in his own words using interviews spanning from the 1980s through now, father and tennis coach Richard Williams retraces his family's journey from the courts in Compton to the grass at Wimbledon, defying every custom of the lily-white tennis establishment and fighting back against a system of oppression to raise two of the greatest champions in history - Venus and Serena Williams.

28 Jun 2020

A look back at 2019’s Wimbledon Championships, where storylines included both Roger Federer and Serena Williams aiming for history and the emergence of a new young star in Coco Gauff.

22 Sep 2017

The true story of the 1973 tennis match between world number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

27 Oct 2020

For more than forty years, Argentinean sportsman Guillermo Vilas, a tennis legend, has tirelessly demanded that the official rankings (1973-78) be revised in order to finally be recognized as the best player in the world. Eduardo Puppo, a sports journalist, making Vilas' demand his own, fought for more than ten years against a powerful sports corporation to prove that Vilas was indeed unfairly displaced from the top of world tennis.

14 Nov 2014

Althea Gibson’s life and achievements transcend sports. A truant from the rough streets of Harlem, Althea emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s. Her roots as a sharecropper’s daughter, her family’s migration north to Harlem in the 1930s, mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins and others, and fame that thrust her unwillingly into the glare of the early Civil Rights movement, all bring her story into a much broader realm of the American story.

04 Oct 2011

"Renee" tells the story of Renee Richards' battle to enter the 1977 U.S. Open as the first transgender tennis player. Simultaneously, it follows her today as she struggles to cope with a life of contradictions and personal conflict. Through interviews with tennis legends, family, friends and experts from the transgender field, a story of perseverance, breakthrough and hardship unfolds.

19 Nov 2024

No overview found