[1] The Women's Tennis Association was founded in June 1973 by Billie Jean King, and traces its origins to the inaugural Virginia Slims tournament, arranged by Gladys Heldman, sponsored by Joe Cullman, CEO of Philip Morris, and held on 23 September 1970 at the Houston Racquet Club in Houston, Texas.

When the Women's Tennis Association was founded, Billie Jean King was one of nine players that comprised the WTA, also referred to as the Original 9, that included Julie Heldman, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Judy Dalton, Kristy Pigeon, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kerry Melville Reid, Nancy Richey, and Rosie Casals.

Billie Jean King was a high ranking tennis player in the late 1960s who won several titles and was interviewed in the media.

Ann Jones, Rosie Casals, Françoise Dürr, and Billie Jean King joined NTL.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) then imposed several sanctions on the group: the women were not allowed to play in the Wightman Cup in 1968 and 1969 and the USLTA refused to include Casals and King in their rankings for those years.

Billie Jean King and Cynthia Starr wrote in their book, We Have Come a Long Way, in 1988, "The women were being squeezed financially because we had no control in a male-dominated sport.

The Pacific Southwest Championships directed by Jack Kramer, had announced a 12:1 ratio in the prize money difference between what males and females would win.

Several female players contacted Gladys Heldman, publisher of World Tennis Magazine, and stated that they wanted to boycott the event.

The tournament was a success and the women found footing, "so, at the bidding of the Original 9, Heldman – who had secured backing from Philip Morris's Virginia Slims cigarette brand for her Houston Invitational – went back to her friend, Philip Morris chairman Joe Cullman III, to see if the company would support a circuit of some kind.

Delighted by the publicity splash from Houston, Cullman was only too keen to give the women what they needed: financial backing, to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars, and the Virginia Slims name as title sponsor for a circuit in 1971.

"[6] The International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) began dropping several women's competitions from the tournaments it presided over.

[9][10] The WTA Tour sold television rights of all its tournaments as a single package, reaching large audiences around the world.

"The '80s energized the popularity base, taking tennis out of country clubs and landed estates into public parks and arenas.

The two circuits merged beginning with the 1983 season, when Virginia Slims returned to take full sponsorship rights of the WTA Tour.

The New York Supreme Court ruled in favour of Renée Richards, a player who underwent male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.

The article included the phrase "comradeship that falls short of camaraderie", because fellow members were also competitors who usually felt they needed to maintain a certain amount of distance.

By 1980, over 250 women were playing professionally, and the circuit consisted of 47 global events, offering a total of $7.2 million in prize money.

[7] During her time with the WTA, she generated an estimated $1 billion in diversified contract revenues, built the brand globally, and was a strong advocate for gender equality.

[24] On 5 October 2015, Steve Simon, the Tournament Director of the BNP Paribas Open, was announced to succeed Stacey as the new WTA chairman and CEO.

[25] In December 2021, following Peng Shuai's disappearance by the Chinese government, the WTA under Steve Simon suspended its operations in China and Hong Kong.

[26] The boycott was lifted in 2023 after 16 months, citing financial losses due to the suspension of operations in China as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.