Navratilova, Martina 1956-

NAVRATILOVA, MARTINA 1956-

Professional tennis player

Innovator,

If Billie Jean King transformed the business of women's tennis off the court in the 1970s, Martina Navratilova redefined the game on the court the following decade. Noted for her remarkable speed, strength, and power (her left-handed first serve was timed at 93 MPH), Navratilova brought an attack mentality to a sport which had previously been dominated by the precision and patience of Chris Evert's baseline game. For Navratilova tennis was not a game of waiting out your opponent so much as it was a matter of taking what was yours. Her coach, Mike Estep, encouraged her to capitalize upon deep approach shots and rush the net behind them, "Go North!" he shouted during practice sessions and matches, and Navratilova heeded his advice, mounting a relentless assault upon the net and upon the nerves of her more hesitant foes. Her success as a "serve and volley" style player changed the face of the women's game. Having participated in an unprecedented strength and conditioning program, Navratilova was able to generate more pace with greater accuracy than any woman before her. Other players on the tour were unable to keep up with her throughout much of the 1980s as they struggled to rethink and redefine their own approaches to the game.

Belonging

Navratilova's success was due in large part to a newfound comfort in her private life. Having defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975, the young star had engaged in a tumultuous life of consumer excess and personal wandering in an effort to overturn the conventions and restrictions which characterized her early life. "I'm gonna buy one of everything," she said at the time. In one remarkable week in 1981, however, two experiences would mark the beginning of a sense of place and purpose for Navratilova which enabled her decade-long dominance of women's tennis. On 21 July she became a United States citizen. After six years of living without a country, Navratilova had found a home. The significance of this moment was dramatized later that same summer when she cried after losing in the U.S. Open—a tournament she described as "the embodiment of my adopted country"—to Tracy Austin. The New York crowd's ovation that afternoon felt like a welcoming. "I knew they were cheering me as Martina, but they were also cheering me as an American," she would explain later in her autobiography. Only nine days after gaining U.S. citizenship, Navratilova granted an interview to the New York Daily News in which she shared information about her personal life. During the course of that interview she discussed her long-standing relationship with lesbian author Rita Mae Brown. Immediately after the information went to press, she was nervous about what it might mean for her image (some sponsors did back away from the star because of her sexual orientation). However, the conversation also meant she had nothing more to hide. As Alexander Wolff of Sports Illustrated wrote, "as she dealt publicly with her private life, she was learning to grapple with some of the private issues that affected the public Martina, the woman who played tennis for a living." Becoming increasingly comfortable with herself and her public role, she developed a new attitude toward the critical moments of match play, resolving to "to hit out more when the pressure is on." The summer of 1981 was a renaissance of sorts for Navratilova. At twenty-five she had won only three Grand Slam titles, but she felt renewed and confident as she thought about her immediate tennis future: "I know there's still a place for me in the history of tennis. It's not too late."

Pinned to the Mat

Two years later Navratilova had succeeded in making history. In 1982 and 1983 she won 176 of 180 matches. She was, as Barry McDermott wrote, "simply too good" in every element of the game. After once being dismantled by her friend and rival 6-2, 6-0, Chris Evert spoke for the entire women's tour when she stated, "that was one of her better matches…I hope." Indeed, the women's game seemed to wilt in the face of Navratilova's dominance in the early 1980s. Critics spoke of the threat her skills posed to fan interest, since the outcome of nearly every major tournament seemed preordained. "She has the women's game pinned to the mat," McDermott explained. In 1983 Navratilova captured her first U.S. Open title. She would win again in 1984 and twice more before the close of the decade. "She savaged the Open," wrote Frank Deford, after watching her drop but 19 games over two weeks. With her victory in the 1984 French Open she became only the third woman to win tennis's grand slam; at one point in the middle of the decade she would win six consecutive Grand Slam singles titles. From 1982 to 1986 her cumulative numbers were astounding: 12 Grand Slam titles (6 singles and 6 doubles) and an overall record of 427-114. By the early 1990s she had amassed an all-time record 166 tournament titles and 55 Grand Slam titles (second only to Margaret Court Smith's 66), 18 of them in singles competition and 37 in doubles. She was ranked number one in the world from 1978 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1986 and remained in the world's top five for an unprecedented eighteen years. Her place in history assured, Navratilova was named Female Athlete of the Decade by the National Sports Review, the Associated Press, and United Press International in 1990.

Team Navratilova

The story of Navratilova's rise to the top of women's tennis would be incomplete without a consideration of her methods. After struggling to harness her talent through much of the late 1970s, she began working with former player Renee Richards on the technical aspects of her game. While Richards worked out the kinks in Navratilova's backhand, former basketball standout Nancy Lieberman went to work on Martina's mental approach to the game. As part of a disciplined approach to the game, Lieberman forced her friend and charge to focus upon playing strategic, merciless tennis that would leave her opponents nowhere to hide. "It's just not good enough to play a good match against her anymore," Evert explained. In addition to Richards and Lieberman, Navratilova traveled with a nutritionist, a strength and conditioning coach, and a reflex trainer. The troupe was affectionately (sometimes mockingly) known as "Team Navratilova" and its star member as "Smartina." Navratilova lost weight, gained muscle, increased her stamina, and established a new standard for fitness in women's tennis. By the mid 1990s top players on both the men's and women's tours had instituted similarly rigorous training regimens.

Partners

One of those who began to realize the importance of increased strength and conditioning was Chris Evert. In her attempt to keep pace with Navratilova, Evert trimmed down and got stronger to add pace to her ground strokes. Evert, who occupied tennis's top spot for much of the 1970s, maintained a fierce rivalry with Navratilova throughout the 1980s. The two would play 80 matches in the course of their careers. When all was said and done Navratilova held the edge at 43-37. Each woman's name and position in the sport is intimately tied to the other in both friendship and competition. "We're opponents on the court, but in the locker room…we're part of something. Martina and I are linked, whether we like it or not," Evert said in 1986. When Navratilova won her first Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles, they were over Evert. When she established the record for match victories and tournament titles, it was Evert's totals of 1,308 and 157 which she surpassed. The media understood them as stark opposites: Evert's cool, methodical demeanor and conventional game versus Navratilova's fiery disposition and groundbreaking style. They thought of each other as friends who often consoled one another after emotional, face-to-face defeats. Finally, what bound them was a love of winning and an unflinching belief in their capacity to perform. As Navratilova's longtime doubles partner Pam Shriver once indicated, "there's an arrogance you must have" to be the very best, "and only two of them have it."

Sources:

Frank Deford, "A Pair Beyond Compare," Sports Illustrated, 64 (26 May 1986): 70-84;

Martina Navratilova with George Vecsey, Martina (New York Knopf, 1985).