Martina Navrátilová is a former Czech-American professional tennis player who was the world’s number-one singles player from 1978 to 1987. She dominated the doubles rankings for the longest time of any player in history, staying at the top for an incredible 237 weeks. What is the story of the now 66-year-old legend still considered one of the best tennis players ever?
Young Prodigy from Czechoslovakia
Martina Navrátilová was born in 1956 in Řevnice near Prague. She received her first tennis lessons from her stepfather a few years later. Her stepfather, Miroslav Navrátil, whose surname she took, also became her first full-time tennis coach.
When it became clear that Martina had tennis talent, she started playing for the local tennis club in Řevnice. There, she fully discovered her tennis talent, a gift from God. She left the small-town tennis club and headed for the capital. After moving to Prague, the first big successes began to come. And they came one after another.
She won her first professional singles title in 1974 at a tournament in Orlando. In 1975, the then-15-year-old Martina Navrátilová went to France to play in the Federation Cup, now called the Billie Jean King Cup. At first, no one gave the young Czechoslovakian any hope. It was a fatal mistake. On May 11, 1975, Martina Navrátilová and her teammate Renata Tomanová defeated the ten-year-old Australians and won gold.
From Prague to the Stars (and Stripes)
When she participated in the 1975 US Open in New York City in September, she decided to take the most crucial step of her career. She left the court for the nearest immigration office instead of the airport and applied for asylum in the United States. Life in the United States seemed a better alternative to life in socialist Czechoslovakia, which was then in the tight grip of communist hardliners after the Soviet invasion of 1968.
She came to the United States with an incomplete high school degree, which she didn’t have time to pursue because of her busy tennis career. But it didn’t slow Martina Navratilova down even a tiny bit. She immediately began training intensively, and the training paid off.
The very next year, in 1976, she won Wimbledon, a prominent British tennis tournament. She won it six more times in her whole career. Then, in 1977, she won the US Open again for the first time—a major American tennis competition, which she won eight more times in the following years.
Stories only life can write
Martina Navrátilová accepted American citizenship in 1981, automatically meaning she lost the Czechoslovak one. An interesting episode of her life was when she flew to Prague in 1986 for a Fed Cup match. She didn’t expect much from the people she left 11 years ago. To her surprise, the crowd welcomed her with a rousing welcome.
In the final, known as the Czechoslovakia vs. Czechoslovakia match, Navrátilová faced her former teammate. But the Czechs cheered loudly for the then-American Navrátilová, who won.
In January 2008, Martina Navrátilová took back her Czech citizenship, making her a dual citizen of the United States and her native country. In June 2023, she received a silver medal from the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic, who recognized her tennis career and contribution to charity projects and other life achievements.
Enjoying retirement
But if this article were to be about all the gold medals, titles, and awards Martina Navrátilová has won and received, it would be about nothing else. However, her achievements can be summarized in a short summary: she has won 167 singles titles in her professional tennis career spanning over 30 years, setting a WTA Tour record. In doubles, she also reached the highest number of 177 trophies. She holds the absolute tennis record with a total of 354 WTA titles.
Tennis Magazine selected Martina Navratilova as the best tennis player from 1965 to 2005. Tennis historian and journalist Bud Collins called her “arguably the greatest female or male tennis player of all time.” She was named Player of the Year seven times by the Women’s Tennis Association and a member of the Couple of the Year eleven times. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.
Today, Martina Navrátilová lives in her home in Sarasota, Florida. Throughout her life, she has been involved in several charity projects, in which she is still active today. She still serves on the Women’s Tennis Association board, of which she was President for several years.
Navrátilová is also a champion in her personal life. In 2010, she won her battle against breast cancer. In early 2023, she announced that she had been re-diagnosed with breast and laryngeal cancer. In March of that year, she said she had won her battle with cancer for a second time. She is currently a writer and regularly co-comments on tennis tournaments for the American television station CNN. She continues to devote herself to the love of her life, tennis.
