'Gods of Tennis' explores trailblazing legends of the sport and why we remember them
This year’s Wimbledon champions may be at the top of the game, but they aren’t exactly household names.
At a time when professional athletes carefully curate their public images, less is known about their private lives. That wasn’t true of the generations of stars that came before them, like John McEnroe, whose personality showed heavily on the court.
Tennis fans know McEnroe not just as a sports commentator today but as a champion tennis player of the 1970s and ‘80s, who challenged umpire decisions he disagreed with. He’s famously known for screaming “You cannot be serious!” after a controversial call at Wimbledon.
McEnroe had a long rivalry with the captivating Swede Bjorn Borg, who made women swoon just by showing up. He was quiet and focused, the opposite of McEnroe personality-wise on the court.
Their stories are both featured in Gods of Tennis, a three-part documentary series premiering on PBS July 23.
“There is something about their natural ability, the general sort of pantomime and performance that maybe you get occasionally nowadays,” series director Simon Draper told Morning Edition about why some players are remembered more than others. “But then it was just this intoxicating mixture of excitement and tennis. And then this personality that might at any minute just explode.”
The series also explores the rivalry between Chris Evert, whose grace and beauty on the court made her America’s sweetheart, and Martina Navratilova, a more physical player who defected from communist-controlled Czechoslovakia to pursue her tennis ambitions.
Gods of Tennis weaves archival footage with new interviews of tennis greats
The first episode features Billie Jean King.
“Wimbledon was the sport you wanted to win but they wanted us to be amateurs for a long time and I didn’t like that,” King says in an interview with the series director Draper. “I wanted our sport to be pro. Amateur means it’s a hobby and this was not a hobby.”
The scene then cuts to crucial moments on the court, with King desperate to win Wimbledon yet another time. King refused to accept the sexism her generation faced, accepting Bobby Riggs’ challenge to an exhibition match against him and facing scrutiny when she was outed just like Navratilova for being gay. Today King is widely revered across generations for her tireless fight to achieve equal prize money.
“I’m not a professional tennis player, but everybody that we spoke to probably put Wimbledon at the top of the Grand Slam tournaments that they wanted to win,” Draper said. That’s why he used Wimbledon, the sport’s oldest, most prestigious tournament, as the backdrop for the series.
Arthur Ashe is also celebrated in the first episode. In 1975, he became the first Black man to win Wimbledon, defeating another tennis legend, Jimmy Connors. Ashe confronted racism head on when he played in apartheid-governed South Africa in 1973. He would go on to become a symbol of strength for Black South Africans, fighting against the injustices of a political system based on segregation and limited freedoms.
Most of the players on the tour today don’t have such enduring histories, according to Draper.
“The commercialism of the sport has driven out the ability to get to know players,” Draper said. “There are obviously some fantastic players. But if you spoke to somebody in the street, I'm not sure they'd be talking about them as easily.”
