Analysis: Call to unify men’s, women’s tennis 50 years late — but better late than never

In this Jan. 30, 2020, file photo, Switzerland's Roger Federer speaks during a press conference following his semifinal loss to Serbia's Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. Federer has raised the prospect of merging the governing bodies that oversee the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours. The 20-time Grand Slam champion began a string of posts on Twitter by saying the shutdown of tennis because of the coronavirus outbreak has given the sport an ideal opportunity to assess its future. Federer says it might be “the time for men’s and women’s tennis to be united and come together as one.” (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

Here was Billie Jean King’s initial reaction when she saw Roger Federer’s tweets suggesting that the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours unify: