Caitlin Clark meets with tennis icon Billie Jean King after New York Liberty-Indiana Fever WNBA game
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark met with tennis legend Billie Jean King after the former's WNBA match against New York Liberty. Clark and Indiana Fever continued their woes as they suffered their third straight defeat on Saturday, May 18.
Clark played 34 minutes against Liberty and earned 22 points. She also recorded eight assists and six rebounds. Fever lost against Liberty 80-91.
The former Iowa Hawkeyes star was the first overall draft pick and is still settling into the WNBA. This was just the third match of the season and her 22 points are the best she has achieved in those matches. However, unfortunately for her and Indiana Fever, the team has not been able to register a win.
Clark made her WNBA debut against the Connecticut Sun on May 14 and registered 20 points in a 71-92 defeat. On May 16, Clark scored just nine points against New York Liberty in a crushing 66-102 defeat. In their latest match against Liberty on May 18, Fever lost by a smaller margin.
After the match, Clark met two women's sporting icons. The Fever's star got together with King and professional golfer Michelle Wie West. The trio got a picture clicked as well.
Billie Jean King has to deal with ageism as the tennis icon enters Octogenarian years
Billie Jean King recently lamented in an interview about how people tell her not to do certain things because of her age. The 80-year-old is one of the most influential figures in tennis and she continues to be active to make a difference.
“I have to deal with ageism all the time, and it really is irritating. People love to remind me of my age: ‘You can't do this. You can't do that,’” King said in an interview with PEOPLE.
The founder of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) also takes great pride in lobbying for women's tennis players to earn the same prize money as the men.
“We started in 1973 at the US Open, we got equal prize money, which is huge... At last year’s US Open Coco Gauff got $3 million—and so did Novak Djokovic,” she added.
It has been decades since the American tennis icon retired from the sport but her zeal to work is still unmatched. The 80-year-old recently launched the Professional Women's Hockey League as well. She plans to travel to Paris to watch the 2024 Olympic Games with her wife Ilana Kloss.