Rosemary “Rosie” Casals is a Hall of Fame tennis player who achieved a ranking of World No.3 in singles, reached two major singles finals, and won 112 doubles titles, including seven major doubles titles alongside Billie Jean King. She’s also one of the Original Nine (read more at http://tinyurl.com/yd2kg8d7), the group of women who signed one-dollar contracts in 1970 in a brave move that paved the way for the WTA’s formation in 1973. Rosie is the 2017 recipient of the USTA President’s Award, bestowed to honor her contributions to the sport.

Tennis View caught up with Rosie to talk about her opinion of the Battle of the Sexes movie and revisit the time in her life captured by the film. Spoiler warning: this interview mentions a plot point related to Rosie’s involvement in the historic Battle of the Sexes match.

On her feelings about the Battle of the Sexes film:

I was very excited to be able to see the movie and I think it was very entertaining. There's always some creative liberty, but I think they caught the essence of the characters. Emma Stone did a fabulous job, in addition to Steve [Carell] and my gal Natalie Morales [who plays Rosie Casals in the film]. I think [Natalie] stole the show.

The job is still not done with women and equality, especially when we're talking about sports, [but] we're closer than we were. I'm glad that the Original Nine were able to participate and we thank Billie Jean for really pushing to have us included in this historical film. I hope the film gets an Oscar, and I hope today's generation may look upon it and say, ‘We really we need to continue, we need to finish what was started because it's not done yet.'

On taking the risk of starting the women’s tour:

When you're young, you feel you're infallible. We did know that that we were probably going to be suspended, we knew that our livelihoods were in jeopardy–but they were in jeopardy anyway.  We were not happy with what we had, and in order to get to where we needed to be, we had to unite and we had to be strong. We needed a leader. Billy Jean was a good leader and I was a good follower. And I think all of us realized and were committed that we needed to take these risks in order to make changes.

On being a television commentator for the Battle of the Sexes match:

He [Howard Cosell] was the main dude for the ABC. Billie Jean telling ABC that she wasn’t going to go on the court if Jack Kramer was going to do the television, believe me, that really knocked ABC for a loop. They just really didn't think she would do something like that, but she did, and they had to do an about-face. That was the power of Billie Jean. So having Howard Cosell in his way try to show that man was supreme, especially in the sports and television world–yeah, he was not a pleasant character. But I was glad that I was able to be a part of it and it was very special.

Oh, I got horrible feedback because I was so horrible to Bobby Riggs. I think that had he won, people would not have paid attention. Because he lost, [people said] he was an old man, he was tired, he was this and that–people sympathized with him. But nonetheless, Billie Jean was supreme and put women's tennis on the map. We can only look forward from what got started in 1973.

photo credits:  Emma Stone and Natalie Morales from the film BATTLE OF THE SEXES. Photos by Melinda Sue Gordon. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film. Rosie Casals and Kim Clijsters courtesy of the USTA.