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Martina Navrátilová
Martina Navrátilová (b. October 18, 1956,
in Revnice, near Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a former World No. 1 woman tennis
player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, she defected to the United States
in 1975 and became a US citizen in 1981. During her career she won 18 Grand
Slam singles titles and 40 Grand Slam doubles titles (31 women's doubles
and 9 mixed doubles). She won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record
9 times.
She was born Martina Šubertová in 1956. Her parents
divorced when she was three, and in 1962 her mother Jana married Miroslav
Navrátil, who became her first tennis coach. Martina then took the
name of her stepfather (adding the feminine "ová").
Tennis career
In 1972 at the age of 15, Navrátilová won the
Czechoslovakian national tennis championship. In 1973, aged 16, she turned
professional. She won her first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida
in 1974.
A left-handed serve-and-volleyer with superb volleying skills,
Navrátilová raised the women’s game to new levels with
her power and aggression. She struggled with her weight in the early years
of her career (and was at one point unflatteringly labelled the “Great
Wide Hope” by the journalist Bud Collins), but her determination to
reach the top of the game saw her embark on a punishing routine to get herself
into shape that eventually made extreme levels of fitness and conditioning
a hallmark of her game.
Navrátilová finished runner-up at two of the
Grand Slams in 1975 - losing in the final of the Australian Open to Evonne
Goolagong and the French Open to Chris Evert. After losing to Evert in the
semi-finals of that year's US Open, the 18-year-old Navratilova went to the
offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York City and
informed them that she wished to defect. Within a month, she received a Green
Card.
Wax figure of Martina Navratilova at Prague wax museumNavrátilová
won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon in 1978, where she defeated
Evert in three sets in the final and captured the World No. 1 ranking for
the first time. She beat Evert in the final again to successfully defend
her Wimbledon title in 1979.
In 1981 Navrátilová won her third Grand Slam
singles title by defeating Evert in the final of the Australian Open, and
also reached the final of the US Open where she lost a third-set tie-breaker
to Tracy Austin. She won both Wimbledon and the French Open in 1982.
The mid-1980s were the most dominant period of Navrátilová’s
career. After losing in the fourth round of the first Grand Slam event of
1983 - the French Open - she captured the year's three remaining Grand Slam
titles (the Australian Open was held in December at that time). She then
won the 1984 French Open to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously.
This was extended to a record-equalling six consecutive Grand Slams following
wins at Wimbledon at the US Open, and she entered the 1984 Australian Open
with a chance of winning all four titles in the same year. However in the
semi-finals, Helena Sukova ended a 74-match winning streak (a record for
a professional) by beating Navrátilová 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Navrátilová did succeed in winning all four
of the Grand Slam women’s doubles titles in 1984, partnering Pam Shriver.
This was part of a record 109-match winning streak that the pair achieved
between 1983 and 1985. (Navrátilová was ranked the World No.
1 doubles player for a period of over three years in the 1980s.)
In the three years from 1985 to 1987, Navrátilová
reached the women’s singles final at all 11 Grand Slam tournaments she
entered, winning six of them (and extending her run of triumphs at Wimbledon
to a record six consecutive).
A new threat to Navrátilová’s dominance,
in the form of the young German player Steffi Graf, emerged on the scene
in 1987 when she beat Navrátilová in the final of the French
Open. Navrátilová beat Graf in the 1987 Wimbledon and US Open
finals (and at the US Open became only the third player in the Open Era to
win the women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the
same event). But Graf’s consistent play throughout 1987 nevertheless
allowed her to depose Navrátilová as the World No. 1 before
the end of the year. (Graf eventually went on to break Navrátilová’s
records of 156 consecutive weeks and 331 total weeks as the World No. 1 singles
player.) In 1988, Graf truly eclipsed Navratilova by winning all four Grand
Slam titles, beating Navrátilová 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the Wimbledon
final along the way. In 1989, Graf and Navrátilová met in the
finals of the both Wimbledon and the US Open, with Graf winning both encounters
in three sets.
But Navrátilová was to have one final Grand
Slam singles triumph in 1990. Graf was knocked-out in the Wimbledon semi-finals
that year by Zina Garrison. In the final, the 33-year old Navrátilová
blew Garrison away 6-4, 6-1 to claim a record-breaking ninth Wimbledon singles
crown. Though that was her last Grand Slam singles title, Navrátilová
made two further major finals in the years that followed. In 1991, she lost
in the US Open final to the new World No. 1 Monica Seles. And then in 1994,
at the age of 37, Navrátilová reached the Wimbledon final one
last time where she lost valiantly in three sets to Conchita Martinez.
In 1994, Navrátilová retired from the singles
tour. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.
Since 2000, Navrátilová has returned to the
tour to play doubles events, while occasionally also playing singles. In
2003, she won the mixed doubles titles at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon
partnering Leander Paes. This makes her the oldest ever Grand Slam champion
(aged 46 years, 8 months). The Australian Open victory made her only the
third player in history to complete a “boxed set” of Grand Slam
titles by winning the women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed
doubles at all four Slams. The Wimbledon win allowed her to equal Billie
Jean King’s record of 20 Wimbledon titles (in singles and double combined)
and extended her overall number of Grand Slam titles to 58 (second only to
Margaret Court, who won 62). Navratilova won a singles match at the first
round of Wimbledon in 2004, aged 47 years and 8 months, to make her the oldest
player to win a professional singles match in the Open Era.
Over the course of her career, Navrátilová
won 167 top-level singles titles (more than any other player in the Open
Era) and 175 doubles titles. Her most recent title came on August 21, 2005,
at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she won the women's doubles event partnering
Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Navrátilová won 18 Grand Slam singles
titles during her career: 9 at Wimbledon, 4 at the US Open, 3 at the Australian
Open, and 2 at the French Open. Her overall record in 67 Grand Slam events
was 306-49 .862 (120-14 at Wimbledon, 89-17 at the US Open, 51-11 at the
French Open, and 46-7 at the Australian Open).
The character Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova from the animé
series Slayers was named after her.
Personal life
In 1981, shortly after being granted U.S. citizenship, Navrátilová
took the bold step of coming out about her sexual orientation. In response
to media speculation about her relationship with the author Rita Mae Brown,
Navrátilová became one of the first major sports stars to announce
that she was a lesbian.
Navrátilová’s openness about her sexuality
almost certainly cost her millions in endorsement opportunities.
From 1983 to 1991, Navrátilová had a long-term
relationship with partner Judy Nelson. Their split in 1991 was messy and
included a much-publicized legal wrangle.
When not playing tennis, Navrátilová is involved
with various charities that benefit animal rights, underprivileged children
and gay rights. She released an autobiography, simply entitled Martina, in
1985, and also co-wrote three mystery novels in the 1990s.
A vegetarian, Navrátilová has appeared in ad
campaigns for PETA.
Navrátilová also made a humorous guest appearance
on the gay-themed NBC sitcom Will & Grace, in a 2000 episode called "Lows
In The Mid-Eighties", in which a flashback revealed she had been heterosexual
until a 1985 relationship with Karen turned her gay.
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