Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to the AO Show. We're back
Speaker 1: with another edition this week of the Sitdown, brought to
Speaker 1: you by me matrolopeofozopen dot Com and Australian Tennis magazine
Speaker 1: editor Viv Christy. How are you, Viv?
Speaker 2: Hey Matt, I'm great, Thank you and it's great to
Speaker 2: be back here with you for the sit Down and
Speaker 2: we have a really special episode this week. You had
Speaker 2: a wonderful chat with a real legend of Australian tennis
Speaker 2: in Judy Dolton.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great to chat to her in line
Speaker 1: with the fact that the Charleston Tournament has just finished,
Speaker 1: which is the longest running women's only professional tournament in
Speaker 1: the world and one of the original WTA events back
Speaker 1: from the seventies, and as Judy is a member of
Speaker 1: the Original Nine, it kind of felt great to talk
Speaker 1: to her about that tournament and that story more generally,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the interview it was really lovely.
Speaker 1: She signed off by asking how's Viv going, which is really.
Speaker 3: Soet I love Jude.
Speaker 2: I won't lie, you know, I've known her for many
Speaker 2: years and yeah, I'm just so pleased that the achievements
Speaker 2: of the Original Nine and Judy and her contribution are
Speaker 2: being recognized. So let's hear what she has to say.
Speaker 1: Well, what do you what do you make of the
Speaker 1: toy given it is such an historic event on the
Speaker 1: women's tour, it's quite an important one. Yes, that's where
Speaker 1: they chose it, obviously as the site for your reunion.
Speaker 1: What was it like going there and what was the
Speaker 1: what was the mood of the reunion? What kinds of
Speaker 1: things were celebrated.
Speaker 4: It was very emotional because we hadn't seen each other
Speaker 4: for a long long time. But like I'd seen Bellie
Speaker 4: because you know, i'd seen it wimbled, don't want have you?
Speaker 4: But I hadn't seen Nancy or Christie or Vale or Peachy.
Speaker 4: I hadn't seen any of for ages and ages. And
Speaker 4: it was and Charleston was really lovely because they at
Speaker 4: the tournament, they reserved a room for us, which was
Speaker 4: really nice, so that we so there was only us
Speaker 4: in the room, okay, And I can remember that when
Speaker 4: I went in the room and we met one another,
Speaker 4: everybody burst into tears.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Obviously Charleston slash Hilt in the head. It's
Speaker 1: in the South of America, in South Carolina and I've
Speaker 1: found that there's in the early days of women's professional tennis,
Speaker 1: whether it was that invitational at Houston, the first tournament
Speaker 1: you guys played for the one dollar contracts, and there's
Speaker 1: obviously Billy Jean's Battle of the Sexes that was also
Speaker 1: in Houston. You've got this long running tournament in South Carolina.
Speaker 1: The South is known as quite a conservative place in America,
Speaker 1: but you've got this progressive women's tennis movement that was
Speaker 1: in line with like, you know, women's liberation and Title
Speaker 1: nine and all of them. That has always been to me, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this progressive women's tennis movement often unfolding in a place
Speaker 1: that's culturally maybe not that way.
Speaker 4: It's interestingly saying that because you know, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of wealth down there, and a lot of wealthy people,
Speaker 4: and yet they were very You would have thought that
Speaker 4: they wouldn't be for women's ten tournaments, you know, for
Speaker 4: women's tennis, and yet they were. They supported us really well,
Speaker 4: and there were a lot not a lot of men,
Speaker 4: but there was a high percentage of men came as well,
Speaker 4: which the women brought their husbands along. You know, maybe
Speaker 4: they were quite well. I would have thought that they
Speaker 4: would be reasonably well educated.
Speaker 3: Therefore they might have thought that it's good to support
Speaker 3: the women.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't know, because I think they might
Speaker 4: have thought the same way as what glad As Hellman thought,
Speaker 4: you know, who had money. I mean, she was exceptional,
Speaker 4: but do you know what I mean? A lot of
Speaker 4: her friends were all into tennis, really into tennis and
Speaker 4: for the women's tennis.
Speaker 1: So when you all get together, you said that the
Speaker 1: Charleston one was very emotional, you will cry. Is that
Speaker 1: does that happen every time? Or have the kind of dynamic? No?
Speaker 4: Well, no, because now we've seen each other sooner, if
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, You know, there hasn't been
Speaker 4: such a such a big gap, but when we went
Speaker 4: to Charleston there was a huge gap.
Speaker 3: So well, it could well have been like fifteen years.
Speaker 4: And I think also when we said goodbye, it was
Speaker 4: most because we thought, well, we might never see each
Speaker 4: other again. And I don't know how we are still
Speaker 4: it's still around, Yes, So you know, it's pretty amazing
Speaker 4: when you think about it.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think I think so too. So what kinds
Speaker 1: of things do you talk about now? Do you talk
Speaker 1: a lot about tennis or is it life, like when
Speaker 1: you all get together, what's the dynamic?
Speaker 4: Like, I know, we did well, we talk about the tennis,
Speaker 4: watching it, but not particularly but we talked about what
Speaker 4: everybody was doing and did or how they were getting on.
Speaker 3: And and things like that, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean, yes we talked about tennis, but it wasn't
Speaker 4: the principle thing of it. And you'd say do you
Speaker 4: remember this or do you remember that you know, and
Speaker 4: somebody'd say, nah, I don't remember that happened at that tournament.
Speaker 3: But we sort of kind of reminisced.
Speaker 1: More just generally, like are you keeping up with tennis
Speaker 1: these days? A lot? Watching a lot?
Speaker 4: And well I tried to, Like I tried to, and
Speaker 4: I mean I always watch. I mean I always look
Speaker 4: at it, look at the results and all that sort
Speaker 4: of thing. And if I don't know somebody, I would
Speaker 4: ask about somebody. And like the Australian, you know, I
Speaker 4: went most days, so you sort of touch up with
Speaker 4: a lot of people and so, you know, so I'd
Speaker 4: just like to keep it an eye and just see
Speaker 4: how things are going.
Speaker 3: But that doesn't necessarily say that I know what's happened
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 1: What do you think about the state of the women's
Speaker 1: game now.
Speaker 4: I don't think you should ever compare decades with decades,
Speaker 4: if you know what I mean, Because I think because
Speaker 4: everything has changed so much, like Matt, if we'd been
Speaker 4: doing what we did today, would like when we started
Speaker 4: the original, would we have been able to achieve what
Speaker 4: we did, because you don't know how what the press
Speaker 4: would have been, what anything would have been like, because
Speaker 4: everything's changed so much, And.
Speaker 3: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And I think that we like it might have been
Speaker 4: beneficial to us because the press might have taken each
Speaker 4: of us and promoted us, if you do you know
Speaker 4: what I mean by that? Whereas whereas then we have
Speaker 4: to try and do all that ourselves and try and
Speaker 4: and and cope with them with trying to promote and
Speaker 4: to play and to make sure that we that we
Speaker 4: looked after the sponsors and things like that. Whereas now
Speaker 4: but to me that the tennis players today really only
Speaker 4: have to concentrate on playing tennis. You know, they don't
Speaker 4: have to organize themselves to practice courts because somebody else
Speaker 4: does it for them.
Speaker 3: That you know, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: They get, They get everything everything given to them.
Speaker 3: Look, I'm not not against that at all.
Speaker 4: But you know, for instance, I tell I always tell
Speaker 4: the story of Leslie Barry when she'd won the French
Speaker 4: and we I played with them that one year and
Speaker 4: she in those days, you know, we had to write
Speaker 4: because there was no emails or phones or anything, which
Speaker 4: which today people the tennis place don't understand.
Speaker 3: And we had to write and say, you know, we wanted.
Speaker 4: To book at the hotel, and and we did that
Speaker 4: and we arrived as char Salisee and of course there
Speaker 4: was nobody there and we had we had bags, it
Speaker 4: didn't have any wheels on them. We still had wooden rackets.
Speaker 4: That's how long ago what?
Speaker 3: And we we we.
Speaker 4: Had to get a bus from the from the airport
Speaker 4: to Charslice and then walked down to the hotel. When
Speaker 4: we got to the hotel, there was this huge hole
Speaker 4: in the ground and I said, well, Leslie, obviously the
Speaker 4: hotel's not there, is it?
Speaker 3: You know, where is it? She said, But I've got
Speaker 3: the letter that says are here.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, oh, well, you mean like it
Speaker 1: had been demolished or something.
Speaker 3: So I went next door and in my limited friends
Speaker 3: over there.
Speaker 4: You know what happened to the hotel and they said, oh,
Speaker 4: it's been demolished and again but new what.
Speaker 3: And I said, well, that's very difficult because we've come
Speaker 3: to play the French Championships, which they didn't even know
Speaker 3: what we were talking about seriously, and we said we
Speaker 3: need a hotel for two weeks. They said, you'll never
Speaker 3: get a hotel for two weeks, so this is not
Speaker 3: a lie.
Speaker 4: We walked the streets of Paris for two hours looking
Speaker 4: for a hotel that we could stay for two weeks,
Speaker 4: and here was Leslie who was the French champion, and
Speaker 4: then of course she wanted again. And I just keep
Speaker 4: saying to everybody, can you imagine in today's thing that
Speaker 4: that would ever happen?
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, no, that would that would That's an
Speaker 1: absurd story.
Speaker 4: There's such a huge difference between the conditions, the equipment,
Speaker 4: the treatment of the players. So in a way, all
Speaker 4: they have to do is concentrate on that one thing
Speaker 4: of playing basically everything else, every other aspect it is
Speaker 4: looked after, where in our day we had to just
Speaker 4: look after ourselves.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess in a way, this is what you
Speaker 1: fought for. The women's game has gotten to such a
Speaker 1: point that isn't that fantastic that the athletes only have
Speaker 1: to concentrate on practicing and preparing and training.
Speaker 4: And they make a living and they're able to do
Speaker 4: whatever they want to do.
Speaker 3: Yes, that was the whole purpose of it. You know.
Speaker 4: I think that people and that when we when we
Speaker 4: signed for the dollar bill, I think everybody thought, oh,
Speaker 4: we were all for equal prize money. Well, I can
Speaker 4: tell you when we when we did that, we never
Speaker 4: envisaged that like that was the pipe tream really, but
Speaker 4: we wanted to be able to earn some money and
Speaker 4: to have the opportunity and recognition and all that. But
Speaker 4: but you know, so many people, especially the men, they
Speaker 4: always used to say, oh, you did it for was
Speaker 4: to get equal prize money, And I keep saying, No,
Speaker 4: that wasn't what it was for.
Speaker 3: That, That's not why we did it.
Speaker 4: We wanted to have the opportunity to earn more money.
Speaker 4: And yes, if equal price money happened, well that was
Speaker 4: a huge bonus, which which had happened, But that wasn't
Speaker 4: That wasn't our idea. We never thought that it would
Speaker 4: happen then, but you know it was. It's wonderful that
Speaker 4: it did. But but what I'm saying is I think
Speaker 4: everybody thought, oh, you know, that's that's what we want
Speaker 4: to have, and that's what we did for which which
Speaker 4: was nice.
Speaker 1: No, it was a different mission statement.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 4: What I would say was the opportunities today are far
Speaker 4: greater than the opportunities that we had to play tennis.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense? You know, would you have liked
Speaker 1: to play then in this era in that way that
Speaker 1: you described everything taking care of you can concentrate on
Speaker 1: the professionalism. It's funny, did you, oh, you would have
Speaker 1: preferred this era? Yes?
Speaker 4: That was I think that was maybe one thing we said.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have been nice to play today. We would
Speaker 4: have to worry about this week. But then you know,
Speaker 4: on the other hand, it could make you lazy and
Speaker 4: you think, oh, well I don't have to worry to you,
Speaker 4: but I'm getting everything looked after. It could be twofold,
Speaker 4: you know, it could be could be both ways.
Speaker 3: Do you think, oh, you know, maybe I don't.
Speaker 4: Whereas we because we had to do everything for ourselves,
Speaker 4: we had to be self efficient, whereas the players today
Speaker 4: really aren't. Yeah, you know, like like you know that
Speaker 4: for instance, you know, we had to make sure we
Speaker 4: entered in every tournament things, you know, And there's cases
Speaker 4: where people didn't enter Wimbledon because they forgot and then
Speaker 4: missed out.
Speaker 3: Well, could you imagine that happening today? It did. Never happened.
Speaker 1: No, it's very very rare for a player to miss out.
Speaker 1: I do hear the odd story about like a player
Speaker 1: or the agent like forgot to enter the minute tournament.
Speaker 1: Then they suddenly have to enter qualifying because they didn't
Speaker 1: in the main job. That's so unusual for that to happen.
Speaker 3: Yes, we'll see. We didn't have qualifying Well you're the
Speaker 3: only ones that had. Well, the only ones who had
Speaker 3: the qualifyings were the Grand slams.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's so interesting. Who do you like watching?
Speaker 4: I like watching, right be Keen think she's she's great
Speaker 4: to watch. I love watching and her demeanor and everything
Speaker 4: is maybe she's a bit too laid back, you see.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but she but I like I like.
Speaker 4: Her and and and Sabalanka. You've got to you've got
Speaker 4: to admire like you know, I admire for for overcoming.
Speaker 4: You know, look with a servant. All that do I
Speaker 4: watch is overcome and everything. And I quite like watching her.
Speaker 4: And the one I do love in the Doubles is
Speaker 4: that Chinese girl that played with Merchants sometimes. She's amazing.
Speaker 4: I mean she's thirty seven, Matt. She's just incredible, you know.
Speaker 4: And she said she was very funny because I spoke
Speaker 4: to her after she'd one of the Ladies Doubles and
Speaker 4: she was playing the mix. No, no, she played the
Speaker 4: mix that's right, and I present her with the Trophy
Speaker 4: of the Wealth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then she was playing the Ladies Doubles.
Speaker 4: It open it and and I said, oh you know that.
Speaker 4: She said, oh, she said, I'd like to win the
Speaker 4: other double. She said, because there's a lot of money
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 1: She's such a character. I like her. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he's amazed, but he's amazing prayer and like
Speaker 4: Si Teck, you've got to you, you've got to admire.
Speaker 4: But I mean it's good for instance that that that
Speaker 4: I think that Halen's come back again. I think that
Speaker 4: that one might add another dementia to it if she
Speaker 4: if she can, you know, if she can play as
Speaker 4: well as what she did before, I mean, that mightn't happen.
Speaker 4: Like Osaka is trying and she's getting there. But I
Speaker 4: think that's going to be a hard one for her,
Speaker 4: but it would be good if she did it as well.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, There's definitely been lots of like comebacks to see
Speaker 1: which has added some you know yeah texture back into
Speaker 1: the tour potentially.
Speaker 4: Well, like Kerber plays played pretty well and most Arki's
Speaker 4: playing well and if halenp comes back again and Saka
Speaker 4: comes back.
Speaker 3: Again, anyway, there we go. So we wait and see, We'll.
Speaker 1: Wait and see. Yeah, Judy, thank you so much. This
Speaker 1: is great.
Speaker 3: You're very welcome, and say hi to Vivre.
Speaker 1: I will always Matt.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, what a fabulous interviewer. Was so lovely to hear
Speaker 2: Judy's insights.
Speaker 1: Thanks Viv.
Speaker 2: We'll be back next week for the sit down and
Speaker 2: we talk to another legend of Australian tennis, Sam Stozer.
Speaker 2: And in the meantime you can listen to John and
Speaker 2: the team on the AO Show weekly. Details for how
Speaker 2: to contact us are in the show notes, and please subscribe,
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