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The 1970 Houston Women's Invitation (also known as the Virginia Slims Invitation for sponsorship reasons) was a women's only tennis tournament. The tournament was the first women only tournament and was created by Gladys Heldman. The tournament was held in protest to the unfair distribution of prize money at tennis events. The women objected to the Pacific Southwest Championships offering a 12:1 ratio split in prize money. Eight women, including Billie Jean King, went with Heldman to play in this one-off tournament. The Houston Women's invitation received sponsorship from Virginia Slims, making the total prize purse $7,500. The event was contested by eight players and took place at the same time as the Pacific Southwest Championships. The tournament was won by Rosie Casals when she beat Judy Dalton of Australia in the final. ==Background== Until the Houston event, all women's tournaments were held alongside men's tennis events. These events were part of the Grand Prix series for women, but unlike the men's series, without a season-ending championship.〔 The Open era began with the British Hard Court Championships in Bournemouth in 1968. At the first Open Wimbledon, the prize-fund difference was 2.5:1 in favour of men. Billie Jean King won £750 for taking the title, while Rod Laver took £2,000. The total purses of the competitions were £14,800 for men and £5,680 for women. By the 1970s, the pay which had been 2.5:1 ratio between men and women increased. In 1969, ratios of 5:1 in terms of pay were common at smaller tournaments; by 1970, these figures increased to 8:1 and even 12:1.〔King & Starr, p. 120.〕 Gladys Heldman, who was a former player in the amateur era, had been making her mark in American tennis throughout the 1950s and 60s. When the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) voted not to hold the National Indoor Championships because they always lost money, Heldman stepped in to underwrite the losses, and turned in an $8,000 profit. In 1962, she raised $18,000 to charter a plane to take 85 foreign tennis players to New York to play in the US Open and underwrote their expenses as well. Heldman's involvement in tennis went back ten years, to 1953, when she set up World Tennis magazine. It made a loss at first, but by the mid-1960s it sold 43,000 copies, maiking the highest-selling tennis magazine in the world. Heldman used her magazine to increase awareness of gender inequality in sports. In winter 1969, Heldman staged three women's only tournaments: a $5,000 tournament in Philadelphia; another $5,000 tournament at the Vanderblit Club in New York; and a tournament without prize money in Dallas.〔King & Starr, p. 121.〕 The turning point in the struggle for acceptance of the women's game came before the US Open in 1970. The Pacific Southwest Championships, run by Jack Kramer, had announced a 12:1 ratio in the prize difference between what males and females would win; since the tournament would not take place until after the Open players, including King and Rosie Casals, contacted Heldman and stated that they wanted to boycott the event. Heldman advised against the idea she approached Kramer twice without success. Heldman decided that if women were not going to be paid fairly, then she would set up a tournament to rival Kramer's. Houston was chosen as the venue as Heldman was about to move there. She contacted the Houston Racquet Club and the Texas Lawn Tennis Association about her idea and within days had created as $5,000 tournament for eight women.〔King & Starr, p. 123.〕 In the locker rooms at Forest Hills, the women tennis professionals argued about whether to boycott the Pacific Southwest Championship. The idealists in the group wanted to make a point before 12:1 ratios were the norm. Others wanted no part in a rebellion. When it looked as if the group would get nowhere, Heldman walked into the locker room and announced her plan for the Houston Women's Invitation.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1970 Houston Women's Invitation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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