It took me away to different places, San Leandro … down the peninsula, you got to see the other kids." I realized it was something that could take me out of my environment - living in what they called the Western Addition - about five blocks from the civic center. "I entered another couple of tournaments and won. They had money - I think what I had was I could beat 'em." All these kids came in Cadillacs, Buicks. I didn't come from a well-to-do family and this was a well-to-do group. I can't afford to go and buy a dress, even though they were $10, $15. "Some of the gals' parents gave me a couple of white outfits. "All the girls that were good played every Monday and Friday, so they invited me to join them - but you had to have all white (clothes) to play," she said. Wightman Cup - the junior version of a team tennis competition for women - practiced at the park. It doesn't matter what side of the tracks you come from - sports is an equalizer, especially if you're beating everyone in sight.Ī group of girls who played Jr. I don't remember when I couldn't hit the ball - it came so natural."Ĭasals got good - fast -and the white-collared crowd started taking notice. I'd hit a million balls against the backboard. "Eventually, he said 'OK, OK.' I would hit the balls. On occasion, he'd take Rosie to the courts where she'd sit and watch, fascinated. "He'd grab one of those rackets from the press and I'd say, 'I want to play, I want to play, can I go with you?'"
"My dad used to play at Golden Gate Park with a bunch of cronies - he was a good recreational player and he would play every weekend," she said. Throughout her life, she referred to these kindly relatives as mom and dad.Ĭasals got her first taste of tennis when she was about eight years old.
When she was just an infant, her parents - who immigrated from El Salvador - did not have the means to raise Rosie and her older sister, so the girls were sent to live with their great aunt and uncle in a sketchy neighborhood in downtown San Francisco. 'I don't remember when I couldn't hit the ball.' She came of age at the dawn of the women's movement and had the great fortune of working side-by-side with King, who led the charge to attain pay parity with men.Ĭasals has always been up to the challenge - even in childhood. It's all good - it's nice to know that you were a part of all of that."Ĭasals was more than just a part of it - she was a true pioneer. Halep made the same amount of money as (men's winner Novak) Djokovic. "Women's tennis is thriving," Casals said in a recent interview with The Desert Sun. Tennis hall of famer Rosie Casals, a resident of Indian Ridge Country Club in Palm Desert - along with cohort and fellow hall of famer Billie Jean King and a small group of barnstorming players - fought to even the prize money field for women.įorty-five years later, Casals can look back with pride on those challenging, frustrating, sometimes dark days when this group risked it all for the sake of the future of the women's game.
#WINNER TAKES IT ALL GAY NIFTY PROFESSIONAL#
When Simona Halep beat out Jelena Jankovic for the BNP Paribas Open women's championship at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in March - earning a whopping $900,400 payday - she could thank a local woman for paving the way to the riches now afforded professional women tennis players. View Gallery: Tennis Hall of Famer Rosie Casals