Rosie Casal’s long list of professional tennis accolades include her historic membership in the Original-9. During the1970’s nine women, one being Billie Jean King broke away from the established USLTA to start their own tour. The Virginia Slims tour was born in 1971 and two years later the WTA was established. The Virginia Slims tour set the stage for these professional women to develop financial sponsorships and determine their own prize money purses. The rest of that story speaks for itself in the continued success of the WTA today. In 1996 Casal’s was honored as an inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Her playing accomplishments include winning 12 majors, and 112 doubles titles overall.
Since retiring as a player Casal’s has run a company called Sportswoman, a group that puts on various sports and charity events for corporations. The next event, Esurance Tennis Classic will take place at the Harbor Point Tennis Club in Mill Valley, Sept 22 & 23. Proceeds of the celebrity tennis event will benefit the To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation, Youth Tennis Advantage, and Northern Light School.
SZ: Over the course of your professional tennis career you won 112 doubles titles. If you were starting out as a player today which current tour player would compliment your style of play technically and mentally?
RC: That is hard to relate because most player’s today don’t serve and volley. For competitiveness and aggressiveness I would compare myself to Serena Williams. For competitiveness and flare Francesca Schiavone, who loves to run down everything and always enjoys competing. I don’t think that there is a doubles server or volleyer at all in the game today that I can really compare myself to. Lisa Raymond who plays with Liezel Huber does a fairly good job of serving and volleying. I would say Raymond’s style of play and mine are similar from the point of view of serving and volleying.
SZ: Would that compliment you? Teams often have a player who’s a terminator and the other who is the scrambler.
RC: It would from the point of view that the partner would be playing my style and I could better play with a partner who serves and volleys. Now mind you I played with Chris Evert and we won tournaments because her returns of serve were so good. She also got to net probably more than today’s player’s do.
SZ: That’s shocking to hear. You don’t think of Chris as a volleyer.
RC: That’s today’s style. We had a totally different style of play. We played on court surfaces that were much faster than today’s courts. During my playing days most of the the Grand Slams were played on grass. The tournament season began at the Australian
Open which used to be played on grass. The French Open was the only time we would play on clay, and once we arrived in England for Wimbledon, it was grass and the U.S. Open was on grass. Serve and volley suited our style of play and growing up in California we played on cement which was a fast surface. Everything slowed down by the time Chris Evert came along. Grass court tournaments switched to hard court or clay and the game drastically changed.
SZ: You partnered with Billie Jean King to win five Grand Slam doubles events. At times player’s have days where their mental game is not on track, their timing is off, their focus may be less intense. During those matches did you have conversations with each other in between points and on change overs that were useful?
RC: Of course. We depended on each other and that’s a team. If you are missing returns of serve or having problems with your shots you try to boost each other up. She said things like, “Just get the return back, it doesn’t have to be great, it doesn’t have to be a winner, but get the return.” From that point of view we helped one another stay in the match. The bottom line in doubles or a team situation is that you are always obviously trying to play your best together. One would have to hold the other player up until she could get her game on track. Billie was very resourceful and she would say, “We are going to win.” I believed her, we believed in one another. I think that was the most important thing. If you are a good team you have to believe in one another. You have to trust one another. That’s what we did very, very well, we believed in one another. Even if we were down in a match 5-0, 40-love and she said, “We are going to win.” I believed that and we were able to raise our game to the level where we would eventually win.
SZ: You and Billie Jean King will always be remembered for gutsy tennis and pioneering
the WTA the first major sponsor being Virginia Slims. What lessons from that historical development of women’s professional tennis would you like to keep alive for future generations of female tour player’s?
RC: The lesson would be that if you stick together and you are a united front then you will accomplish a lot more than if you don’t. You need to have leadership and followers. I think leadership is the most important because in paving the way for women’s tennis we had to have a leader. Billie Jean was number one at the time. She was a good focal point. She was someone who could get information out to the media. She was someone that people could believe in. Even though at times because Billie was also competing and number one there was always a little bit of friction and conflict. Sometimes it’s not as easy in the player’s arena to convince them that this way is the right way but having some key player’s such as myself and others that were not number one that the players felt a little bit closer and could relate to - I think I helped in that way.
I look at history and see that no matter what player’s are fighting for they have to be together. Whether it’s a soccer looking for a league or the female basketball players. You have to have a leader and be able to stick together because that’s the only way you’re going to accomplish great things.
SZ: Do you find this is missing in women’s tennis now or has leadership shifted to player agents?
RC: It’s changed somewhat. If you recall and it may be eight years ago at this point that Venus Williams took the leadership role and rallied the women players to stick together in order to receive equal prize money at the Grand Slam events. Player’s banding together hadn’t been the case in a long while but it was obvious that by the women grouping together which is difficult these days because yes, you have agents, and the women are not as close as we were. We depended so much on each other during our times because we had to. It’s a little bit different now when player’s are making millions of dollars. But I was happy to see that the women made a statement and the stuck together. They remembered their history and I know that Venus is very close to the history of women players and Billie Jean King. She always acknowledges Billie and the ways that player’s have benefited from our era.
RC: Absolutely. I do see them as leaders. They are well spoken and they understand the history of women’s tennis and where they’ve come from. As player’s they’ve been number one in the United States for over a decade. So, yes, I think the Williams sisters are very much leaders in our game.
SZ: What experience, skills and support would you advise a player preparing to embark on a professional tennis career have before making the decision to turn pro in the modern era?
RC: Like anything else you have to be prepared. When you are young it’s all exciting and player’s think about money and sometimes are pushed into a professional career. I think everyone faces a time where they want to play professionally. But it’s not going to be easy. Things are tough and more competitive now. The Challenger Tour is very, very strong and only the top 350 women on the tour make a living playing.
Young player’s will have their hard knocks but if they are really good they are going to make it. A player has to make the commitment to put themselves out and say “I want to be the best” and if a player wants to be the best she needs to compete with and beat the best. Along with this have a good attitude and be competitive because that’s what it takes to be the top and play in the pro’s. They are going to have losses and need to be able to pick herself back up and say, “I can do this.”
SZ: You currently run a company called Sportswoman, a group that puts on various sports and charity events for corporations. The popular Esurance will be held at the Mill Valley Harbor Point Tennis Club, Sept. 22 & 23rd. Proceeds from the event will benefit To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation, Youth Tennis Advantage and Northern Light School. What other upcoming events is Sportswoman involved with this year that we should know about?
RC: We’ve just begun working on Billie Jean King & Friends. Billie’s alma mater is Cal State Los Angeles and we are in the process of celebrating our 15th anniversary of raising money for the athletic scholarship program and the women’s tennis team. Two years ago Cal State University named the sports complex after Billie Jean. Our new task in the future is to raise about 2.5 million for the tennis facility to be built. Billie would like to name it after myself and Pancho Gonzales who was a native of East L.A.
SZ: What a great honor.
RC: Well I think so. I like that it will be named after Pancho Gonzales who has never really received the recognition that he deserved because he came way before tennis was so popular. I hope this will pay tribute to what he accomplished. I played mixed doubles with him at Wimbledon which was a great honor.
SZ: Each year the Esurance Event draws an amazing group of player’s. This year tennis fans will enjoy watching the Bryan Brothers who have recently returned from London winning gold in men’s doubles, three time Grand Slam winner Lindsay Davenport, seventeen time Grand Slam Doubles winning Gigi Fernandez, Six time Grand Slam doubles winner Rennae Stubbs and others. The format for the event has changed to World Cup Team Challenge, USA versus The World. Explain how this year’s format is different and how it will enhance the tournament viewing for spectators.
RC: What’s different this year is even though we’ve always had international player’s playing in the World Team Tennis format, this year is going to take on a Davis Cup/Fed Cup format. We are setting the stage for USA vs. The World. We’ve invited both men and women international players who will compete against the USA player’s. With the Byran brother’s it should be really fun and an event the crowd can get behind. We will still use team tennis scoring with no add, short sets and super tie-breakers.
SZ: You’ve participated in and seen dramatic changes in the sports world through-out the years. Do you have any favorite quotes, stories, or tips that have guided your successes in life?
SZ: Rosie thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedule for this interview.
*Pictures are from Getty Images
*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro
*This article may also be read @ the examiner
