Martina Navratilova

Tennis Player
Date Of Birth:
18 October 1956
Place Of Birth:
Prague, Czechoslovakianow the Czech Republic
Best Known As:
The tennis player who won a remarkable nine Wimbledon singles championships

The dominant women's tennis player of her time, Martina Navratilova won every Grand Slam singles title at least twice: Wimbledon (a record nine times), the Australian Open (three), the French Open (two) and the U.S. Open (four). Left-handed, sinewy and athletic, she helped bring a new era of power into the traditionally more finesse-minded women's game. Her many matches with former world #1 Chris Evert were particularly famous (with young Tracy Austin in the mix, 1979-81). Navratilova retired from professional tennis in 1994, but in 2000 returned to occasional action in mixed doubles and then women's doubles. By winning the mixed doubles title at the 2003 Australian Open (with Leander Paes of India) she became the first player since Margaret Court to win the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at all four grand slam tournaments.

Extra Credit:

Still competitive at nearly 50 years of age, Martina Navratilova announced in 2006 that she would again retire after that year’s U.S. Open… Navratilova and Paes won mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2003, giving her a total of 20 Wimbledon titles… The same win gave her 58 total career grand slam titles, second only to Court’s 62… At age 46 years and eight months, Navratilova also became the oldest player of either sex ever to win a grand slam title… Navratilova won 167 singles titles during her professional career.

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