2018 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award announced on the night of the ceremony. The nominees were: England Netball team was announced as the winners of the team of the year award. Billie Jean King became the third woman and third tennis player to be given the Lifetime achievement award. King had won 39 Grand Slam titles in both singles and doubles competitions through out her career, with 20 coming at Wimbledon. In 1961 King and Karen Hantze Susman became the youngest pair to win the women's doubles title at Wimbledon. Through out her career King was world singles number one in six years and won 129
Billie Jean King four consecutive Grand Slam singles titles (a "non-calendar year Grand Slam"), King defeated Maria Bueno in a quarterfinal before losing to Gunter in a semifinal 2–6, 6–3, 6–4. King rebounded to win her third consecutive Wimbledon singles title, defeating Jones in the semifinals and Dalton in the final. At the US Open, King defeated Bueno in a semifinal before being upset in the final by Virginia Wade. On September 24, she had surgery to repair cartilage in her left knee and did not play in tournaments the remainder of the year. King said that it took eight months (May 1969)