A legend of the tennis world and a symbol of the fight for equality will come to Vilnius Sports

The tennis player, who celebrated her eightieth birthday last year, has won 39 grand slam tournaments in her career: 12 times in singles, 16 times in women’s doubles tournaments, 11 more in mixed doubles.

Together with the US national team, she became the champion of the Federation Cup (the former Billie Jean King Cup competition) 7 times as a player, and 4 more times – as the captain of this team. The tournament was renamed in 2020 in honor of Billie Jean King.

In Vilnius, the legend of the world of sports will not only watch the matches of the women’s tennis national team and communicate with the players of the national team. On the occasion of Vilnius University’s 445th birthday, she will take part in an open discussion about equality in sports and its global importance for all women’s sports.

“To receive such a guest is an extraordinary event not only for the Lithuanian Tennis Union, which organizes the competition, but, I can confidently say, for Vilnius and the whole of Lithuania. After all, we will have a great opportunity to communicate with the person who essentially gave birth to modern women’s tennis, whose activities, while still at the peak of his career, far exceeded the boundaries of the tennis courts”, says Ramūnas Grušas, president of the Lithuanian Tennis Union.

Tennis players from Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Sakartvel, Israel, Kosovo, Malta, Morocco and North Macedonia will compete in the tournament of the second group of the European-African zone of the Billie Jean King Cup in Vilnius.