Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova is, in the words of Billie Jean King, “the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who’s ever lived”, taking women’s tennis to a new level with her fitness, speed, determination and agility.

In 1975, at the age of 18 years old and after losing the US Open semi-final, Navratilova walked into the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service in New York City and informed them she wanted to defect from Soviet controlled communist Czechoslovakia.

Navratilova’s on-court tennis achievements speak for themselves, winning a total of 59 Grand Slam titles (18 singles, 31 ladies doubles and 10 mixed doubles) in an outstanding career.

Navratilova is the only tennis player to have spent more than 200 weeks as world number one in both singles and doubles. She holds the record of nine Wimbledon singles titles, comprising half of her 18 Grand Slam singles titles. In women’s doubles she won 31 Grand Slam titles complemented by 10 mixed doubles titles.

Navratilova is one of only three women to win singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at each of the four Grand Slams, being the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Her last Grand Slam victory was in the 2006 US Open mixed doubles, a month shy of her 50th birthday.

In her 33-year professional tennis career Navratilova won 354 titles, 167 of them in singles.

Her decades long rivalry with Chris Evert is considered one of the greatest in sports history, with Navratilova holding a 43-37 advantage. Off-court, they continue to be best of friends!

Since retiring at almost 50, Navratilova has forged a career in other fields and also provides her articulate, intelligent and sometimes outspoken commentary on the Tennis Channel, BBC’s Wimbledon coverage, Amazon Prime Video and SKY.