Born Billie Jean Moffitt in Long Beach, California, on November 22nd 1943, Billie Jean King won 12 Grand Slam singles titles between 1966 and 1975.

Half of them were at Wimbledon and four at the US Open, while she conquered the Australian Open and French Open on only one occasion each. Billie Jean King also captured 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles and 11 mixed. King and Martina Navratilova share the record for most Wimbledon titles with 20.

Billie Jean King began her career at the top level aged 15 at the US Championships in 1959 and bowed out from singles at the 1983 Australian Open, bringing an end to a Grand Slam career that lasted almost a quarter of a century.

An aggressive hard-hitting player who would rush around the court and frequently to the net, King described herself as a perfectionist in terms of her technique rather than being a supreme competitor.

Her main rivalries were with Margaret Court, to whom she lost in four Grand Slam finals and
whom she beat in just one, and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, her victim in four of her last six 'major' showdowns.

However, as well as being the world's leading female tennis player for the first half of the 1970s, Billie Jean King became just as well known for her promotion of sexual equality within sport.

In 1973 she took part in the 'Battle of the Sexes' against 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and won 6-4 6-3 6-3 at Houston Astrodome.

She married Lawrence King in 1965, but subsequently became the first prominent professional sportswoman to reveal she was gay.