WTA Legend Virginia Wade has been reflecting on her 1968 US Open triumph - and says she made a conscious decision to win.
"I wasn't really having any trouble in these matches," she recalled in an interview with Rennae Stubbs for the New York Times. "I was very happy with just getting there. And then when I get to the final and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm in the final.' And then we played after - the men played the semis, and that went on and on and on. And we were running out of daylight.
"And I'm sitting in that dressing room down in Forest Hills, which is still there looking just the same. And I was sitting there thinking, 'I've got to win this match because I may never be in the final again.' So I decided - I just made the big decision I was going to win it, and I won it."
The British star beat Billie Jean King in that match, 6-4, 6-2, despite being the underdog.
"Every match against Billie Jean was quite a challenge," she added. "First of all, you knew she was going to come in off of everything. If you hit anything remotely short, she was at the net and she was phenomenal at the net."
And even though Wade was confident she would win, she says she always knew it would be a tough task.
"I was pretty sure I was going to win it, but I also - you know, I knew that it wasn’t the end of the world if I lost," she explained. "So, you know, I just had a pretty good attitude about that. And it was exciting. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just played out of my mind at that tournament."
