Navratilova Martina

« Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Martina Navratilova. Martina Navratilova , born in 1956, Czech-American tennis player who has won 167 professional singles tournaments in her career, the sport’s all-time record.

She is also second to Australian Margaret Smith Court in major title victories with 59—18 singles, 31 doubles, and 10 mixed doubles (Court has 62). Navratilova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic).

She was the national champion in her native country from 1972 to 1975 and won thejunior girls championship at Wimbledon in 1973.

By the end of 1974 she had played in the singles finals of a number of professional tournaments and, with Americantennis player Chris Evert as her partner, won several doubles championships. Frustrated by the Czechoslovakian Tennis Federation's interference with her career, Navratilova defected to the United States in 1975.

The same year she became aleading player on the women's professional tennis tour, as she and Evert won the French Open doubles championship, Navratilova’s first major title.

The next year thepair won the Wimbledon doubles championship. Navratilova won the Wimbledon singles championship in 1978 and again in 1979, when she finished the year as the world's top-ranked player.

In 1981 she became aU.S.

citizen.

From 1982 to 1987 she held the number-one ranking for all but 22 weeks of a 282-week span. Navratilova dominated Wimbledon from 1982 to 1987, winning six consecutive singles titles, and she won the title again in 1990 to set a record with nine Wimbledonsingles championships during her career.

In addition, she won nine other major singles titles: four times at the U.S.

Open (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987), three times at theAustralian Open (1981, 1983, 1985), and twice at the French Open (1982 and 1984). During this period Navratilova and Evert, no longer doubles partners, developed an intense rivalry.

They faced each other in 13 major singles finals, and Navratilovawon 10 of these. Navratilova also won fame for her women’s doubles play, winning 31 major titles with a variety of partners.

These included the U.S.

Open (nine times), the AustralianOpen (eight times), and the French Open and Wimbledon (seven times each). In 1992 Navratilova won her 158th professional tennis title at the Virginia Slims in Chicago, Illinois, breaking Evert's record for career singles championships.

The nextyear she established yet another record, becoming the oldest player to beat a number-one-ranked player with a victory over Monica Seles in the Paris Open. Navratilova retired from singles competition at the end of 1994 but continued to play doubles and mixed doubles.

She returned to singles play in 2002 in a tournamentin England, winning one match.

The following year she won the mixed doubles championship at the Australian Open, giving her wins in singles, doubles, and mixeddoubles in all four major championships.

The same year she captured the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, setting a record as the oldest winner of a major title (at 46)and tying American Billie Jean King for the record number of Wimbledon championships with 20.

Navratilova also won a match for the American team in the 2003 finalsof the Fed Cup, running her career record in the international competition to 39-0. In 2004 Navratilova became the oldest woman in 82 years to win a singles match at Wimbledon, although she lost in the second round of the tournament.

The sameyear she played in the Olympic Games for the first time, becoming the oldest tennis player in the competition’s history and reaching the doubles quarterfinals in Athens,Greece; captured her 174th doubles tournament title; and advanced to the doubles semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Navratilova concluded her career atthe 2006 U.S.

Open with victory in the mixed doubles—her 59th major title. Navratilova served as president of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour Players Association three times (1979-80, 1983-84, and 1994-95).

Her autobiography,Martina, was published in 1985, and she has also coauthored three mystery novels.

Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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