European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 14, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Nobody makes you you make you play by Anna Quinlen new York Timet there Are Zipper scars across Billie Jean Kings the most recent Only a year and there is the Shadow of a Wimbledon two Yean ago when she told the in her ebullient Cali fornia thai she want going to play the big ones not Long ago there was the dark possibility that she was too old she is now 34 and too scarred to be the perpetual motion Tennis machine that she had been for after a King has taken her announcement she refuses to give though she could Well afford in the sunny living room of her Midtown Manhattan Hung with Ballet prints and Bright with Ballet King talked about her about her Battle to lift women Tennis players to Equality with and about the passing question the word comeback has been used in connection with your name As often As net game and out do Yon fed com doubly that youre coming Back from something answer i feel after each knee operation Ive really had to make a but i get so much More Atten Tion people Are so much More aware that Ive had a knee while with the other two Ive had one in one in 70 no one even because we just didst get now you win one and everyone goes youre everyone is aware of what Chris Evert does every Day of her cause Shes number and i just they never talked about the other two yet Ive gone through exactly the same process each except that it got More and More i Why u it w difficult a because nothing you just work and work its 10 and in not the most patient person in the world but in stubborn enough to continue to think its going to the Only Way you can get through it is by thinking of the end when youre in the you see other people who really do have serious things wrong with and 11 helps you keep things in perspective and real the How Lucky you Are Only to be having a knee operation when you see someone with terminal or a but being an and having that experience of being in being Able to run and feel the wind in your hair All those its really hard on you have to bring the emotional and the physical Back into its so difficult to find that like in off balance All the and 1 hate i think that one of the Best parts of my that in on balance Moat of the so Why go through with your und of be i Ato because i like i dont have i never fid nobody makes you play you make you i think tit for a striving for pwn Eltink of Rovai being real but 1 think res Nortof still relate it to being As per feet probably Only two or three limes a year when you hit a shot and you wow All those i think i probably gave up Tennis a thousand times last year years All right that one shot when everything was from your head to your losing that feeling for a while is probably for me the most exasperating thing about having to go through Reha 1 think i probably gave up Tennis a thousand times last q ii sounds As if that striving for perfection will make it close to impossible for Yon to Ever give up pro a that 1 can give i when will that happen a i dont you most human beings at my age Are just finding out about themselves and really settling in to what Treyve decided to whereas an athlete has to its that the thing that you have to prepare for a you have to find something q Are you Cou Clous of that time it naming out far you a Ive always fell that sense of even when i was a child time just seems to go by so fast there Are so Many things to it when you Wen 24 and already number did you think that at 34 you would Lull be playing lends professionally a at that time there was very Little reason to continue in Tennis at the competitive i figured id be finished around have a few children and stay at 1 also that if i could help change the system i would stay in the game when Progress started happening in that 1 knew i would be cause now the the Way it is Isth one under which i would have functioned Best As a child Ujj Welch women were Matt resistant to your ideas for changing Ibe system a when the Virginia slims circuit started in for two years Chris evonne Margaret court and Virginia Wade were against Chris want so much against us her father really controlled the Situa q Doat you sometimes feel that Chris in portico Lar is Lunog wave that Yea created a 1 think Chris has derived the most from the efforts that we not just myself i get the credit that maybe five or six of us Francoise Rosie Ann some others should be because i happen to be the Best player of the q Chris says she wont be playing muck Lau do you Lunk Traat win feet yer come Hacker a i wish the was because Vonnes playing again playing dream from what i understand and with me playing again it would be a great in sure Chris wont Lake too much time its her first rest q Are gov to Winthie year a i think All i can do is train my brains and eat and think and live each moment to the i think in that Way Ive come to terms with myself january 1978 much i know what Ive got when i go out and play in like a Little kid i know what it is to i know what it is to i know that i dont have much time and in going to make the most of q feeling that what made you win Wimbledon in uts and then Call a press conference Ana thais a i so very i tired of All Ibe trying to get the i Rcpt just about used i was ready for the my Bouse that going to look gnat in Ive never been the same since q so Why bother with that kind Mrgan Tilg Corii Virginia is it far the Pobu atthe players Allyl so no altruism nobody Ever does anything for Alt people do things for All i could do was make the game the system so that t could make a i so you did it for us Money a people think of me As totally but 1 just know what its like not to gel there Are some other players who talk a certain and All the women just crack you i play for the love of the we like the its but the Money allows you to q in the last  in her match a Alert Tracy aus la at appears to be lean ing something Yog Laid about the Crank ago they a Chris does not handle that athletes Are entertainers they really want the world to love but that not love its not when you can separate the that alien you can handle people cannot identify with they identify with the which t dont it shows that the Public has no sometimes i want to grab the Mike and no self respect Chris wants people to love and i Why dont you ten it around and look for someone to love to hear her what her feelings Are about the crowd brings Back i Sec her in pain a bit at least were Able to q How much pain can the crowd inflict a you a too a q and yet people think of As bulk Jeanie dont ave a Dum what Shioki a that to protect pm very i have u be careful q do your plans for Ibe future Lack Var Cluren do Yon eel the Dock Rasta get toe a it has in More ready to have a baby now than t Ever have and if in going to have one i should not wait too much but then you have to because it changes your whole id want to be with the child be the perfect the stars and stripes 13