Wimbledon Interview: Barry Millns meets former-runner-up Judy Dalton

Barry Millns: Your reward was supposed to be a cheque for £450, but it did not work out like that.

Judy Dalton: Well I didn't get the £450. The Lawn Tennis Association of Australia wouldn't let me accept the prize-money. They offered me a £150 for three weeks in London (Queen's and Wimbledon).

Ultimately, when we signed the original Virginia Slims thing (the inaugural women's professional tour in 1971) for $1 each, we weren't allowed to play in Australia for a year and a half and I wasn't allowed to play with my Dunlop racket! But that was the forerunner of the tour.

Barry Millns: That's a far cry from the modern game - if you were runner-up this year you would walk off with a cheque for £375,000! So how does that make you feel?

JD: Incredulous - I think my husband would have been very happy with that! But that's in a sense what we fought for, to try and get better equality with the prize money and we eventually achieved that. Whether the girls today appreciate what we all went through to do that I don't know. I'm sure they wouldn't know who I was from Adam, I mean they certainly know Billie Jean (King) and that's fair enough, but I don't think they have any idea of the other girls who did that.

But times change and why look back? I know that there are a lot of tennis players over the years who are very bitter about the fact that now the girls get so many endorsements and so much prize money, but you can never turn the clock back and life goes on.

BM: Aside from prize money what is the biggest difference now in the women's tennis compared to the game you played 40 years ago?

JD: Oh, the equipment, definitely and probably the methods of training. Margaret Court and I went to the gym in those days, which was unheard of, and I agree that Martina Navratilova changed the face of women's tennis by the regime she did of diet and that sort of thing.

BM: Because of the improvements in equipment there is now so much power in women's tennis. Consequently, the variety, touch and feel players like Navratilova and you displayed seems to have been lost, which is a shame, isn't it?

JD: I agree. I think it's a shame that when Chris Evert came and she won the thing the coaches dwelt on the fact that here was somebody who played the two-handed backhand all the time and she had appeal to the general public. When Navratilova came along she didn't have the same appeal so therefore the coaches didn't go the Navratilova way with the big serve and volley and in a sense the volley was lost there.

(Steffi) Graf certainly made a difference and then (Monica) Seles didn't because she didn't really volley, but then (Justine) Henin came along and she had this wonderful backhand and she could volley quite well, and I think that she is missed in that regard because she made the mix that much better. You know you've got the Sharapovas and the Williams sisters, but I think Henin's retirement is going to leave a big gap in that.

BM: Those current players you mention and others like the new world No.1 Ana Ivanovic are heavily promoted for their looks as well as their tennis. Do you think there is too much of that or have they got the balance right?

JD: I think the fashion does come into it because I think it has appeal as well as the tennis. You have to be a really good player to bring it off but even so I think it does count. I think that is the way of life these days.

BM: Aside from the fashion and the looks so much of women's tennis these days has a big grunt with it. Did anyone grunt in your day?

JD: No, never! I think (Nick) Bollettieri has a lot to answer for with that because all the people who have come out of his tennis academy they all grunt, they all do it - Seles, Tommy Haas, Agassi to a certain extent, Sharapova and a few other girls and I don't agree with it.

I have publicly said if I was playing Sharapova today and she started doing that I would say to the umpire 'Please would you stop her' and if he said 'I can't' I would call the referee and if the referee came and said 'No, I can't stop her' then she could have a walkover, because I think it is cheating.

She does it when she actually hits the ball - I know it sounds strange, but when you hear the tennis ball you know where its going to be, you can tell the kind of stroke, and you can't hear it when she grunts.

BM: Well, Wimbledon is certainly a few decibels quieter now that Sharapova has been knocked out! So who are you tipping for the title?

JD: Well, I'm tipping Serena (currently trading at [5.4] to regain the title). I think it's her turn again! Venus has a better record here but I just feel Serena has lost a lot of weight and I think it is all very well for people to say they have come here without any match practise, but it doesn't seem to make any difference to them. Because it's Wimbledon they shine and Serena's serve is such a great asset for her she can win free points and that's why I'm choosing her.