Martina
Navratilova 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 suffix "ová"), thus becoming Martina Navrátilová
.
In 1973, aged 16, she made her debut on the USLTA professional
tour but did not turn professional until 1975. She won her
first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida in
1974 at the age of 17. A left-handed serve-and-volleyer
with superb volleying skills, Navratilova raised the women’s
game to new levels with her power and aggression. Navratilova
was a finalist at two Grand Slam singles tournaments in
1975. After losing to Evert in the semifinals of that year's
U.S. 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 from Communist
Czechoslovakia. Within a month, she received a green card.
Navratilova 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, Navratilova won her
third Grand Slam singles title by defeating Evert in the
final of the Australian Open. Navratilova won both Wimbledon
and the French Open in 1982
.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. Navratilova’s loss at
the French Open was her only singles defeat during that
year, during which she established an 86-1 record. Her winning
percentage was the best ever for a professional tennis player.
During 1982, 1983, and 1984, Navratilova lost a total of
only six singles matches. Navratilova won the 1984 French
Open, enabling her to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles
simultaneously.
The left-handed Navratilova succeeded in winning all four
Grand Slam women’s doubles titles in 1984, partnering right-handed
Pam Shriver. This was part of a record 109-match winning
streak that the pair achieved between 1983 and 1985. (Navratilova
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, Navratilova reached
the women’s singles final at all 11 Grand Slam tournaments
held during those years, winning six of them (and extending
her run of triumphs at Wimbledon to a record six consecutive).
Navratilova's final Grand Slam singles triumph was in 1990
claiming a record-breaking ninth Wimbledon singles crown.
Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis
Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2000, Navratilova returned to the
tour to play doubles events, while rarely also playing singles.
In 2003, she won the mixed doubles titles at both the Australian
Open and Wimbledon, partnering Leander Paes. This made 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 women's doubles, and mixed doubles combined)
and extended her overall number of Grand Slam titles to
58 (second only to Margaret Court, who won 62).
Over the course of her career, Navratilova won 167 top-level
singles titles (more than any other player in the Open Era)
and 177 doubles titles. Her most recent title in women's
doubles (a Tier I event) came on August 21, 2006, at the
Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada, where she won the women's
doubles event partnering Nadia Petrova. Navratilova won
18 Grand Slam singles titles during her career: 9 at Wimbledon,
4 at the U.S. 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 U.S.
Open, 51-11 at the French Open, and 46-7 at the Australian
Open).
