Martina Navrátilová (b. October 18 1956, in Řevnice, near Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a previous Globe There are no. Ace woman tennis player. Originally from either Czechoslovakia, she defected to the United States in 1975 and became a America citizen around 1981. In the period of her career she won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and Xl Grand Slam doubles titles (31 women's doubles & Niner mixed doubles). She won a women's singles title at Wimbledon a record 9 days.

She was natural Martina Šubertová in 1956. Her parents divorced whenever she was trinity, & inside 1962 her mother Jana married Miroslav Navrátil, who became her number 1 lawn tennis coach. Martina so took a title of her stepfather (adding a feminine "ová").

Tennis career

Within 1972 at a age of Fifteen, Navrátilová won the Czechoslovakian national lawn tennis championship. Within 1973, aged Xvi, she turned office. She won her 1st broker singles title inside Orlando, Florida in 1974.

The left-handed serve-and-volleyer with superb volleying skills, Navrátilová raised the women’s game to newly levels by using her power & aggression. She struggled sustaining her weight in a early years of her career (& was at one point unflatteringly labeled the “Great Wide Hope� per journalist Bud Collins), but her determination to email the top of the game saw her commence the heavy routine for herself into shape that finally manufactured extreme levels of fitness & conditioning a hallmark of her game.

Navrátilová finished runner-second best at deuce of the Grand Slams around 1975 - losing in the final of the Australian Open to Evonne Goolagong and the French Open to Chris Evert. When losing to Evert in the semi-semi of that season's US 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. In the year, she received the Green Card. Navrátilová won her number 1 Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon inside 1978, where she defeated Evert inside triplet sets in the final & captured the World There is no. One ranking first. She beat Evert inside the final once more to with success defend her Wimbledon title in 1979.

Inside 1981 Navrátilová won her third Grand Slam singles title by defeating Evert in the final of the Australian Open, and as well reached the final of the Me Open in which she misplaced a third-placed tie-breaker to Tracy Austin. She won two Wimbledon & a French Open within 1982.

A mid-1980s were the virtually all dominant period of Navrátilová’s career. When losing in the quaternary around of the 1st Grand Slam event of 1983 - a French Open - she captured the season's ternion left Grand Slam titles (a Australian Open was held around December at that instance). She so won a 1984 French Open to hang on to totally tetrad Grand Slam singles titles at the same time. This was reach the record-equalling captain hicks sequentially Gr& Slams as a consequence wins at Wimbledon at a United states Open, and she entered the 1984 Australian Open using a risk of winning whole quaternity titles in the equivalent month. Notwithstanding in the semi-semi, Helena Sukova ended a 74-match winning streak (the record for a sales person) by beating Navrátilová One-6, 6-Three, 7-Five.

Navrátilová did succeed inside winning everthing foursome of the Grand Slam women’s doubles titles around 1984, partnering Pam Shriver. This was section of a record 109-match winning streak that the pair achieved between 1983 & 1985. (Navrátilová was ranked the World There is no. I doubles streaming video player for the period of complete triad years in the Eighties.)

In the tierce years from either 1985 to 1987, Navrátilová reached the women’s singles final in the least Eleven Gr& Slam tournaments she entered, winning sextuplet of the babies (and extending her do of triumphs at Wimbledon to the record captain hicks sequentially).

The freshly threat to Navrátilová’s dominance, in the form of the immature German streaming video player Steffi Graf, emerged on the scene in 1987 while she beat Navrátilová in the final of the French Open. Navrátilová beat Graf in a 1987 Wimbledon & America Open finals (& at a United states Open became single the third streaming video player in the Open Era to win a women’s singles, women’s doubles & mixed doubles at the equivalent event). However Graf’s uniform play throughout 1987 however allowed her to depose Navrátilová when the World There are no. I prior to a prevent of the month. (Graf sooner or later went in to break Navrátilová’s records of 156 sequentially weeks & 331 sum weeks when the World There are no. Unity singles streaming video player.) Inside 1988, Graf truly eclipsed Navratilova by winning all iv Grand Slam titles, beating Navrátilová Five-7, 6-Two, 6-One in a Wimbledon final along the way. Around 1989, Graf & Navrátilová met within a finals of the each Wimbledon and the Me Open, by owning Graf winning two encounters in leash sets.

However Navrátilová was to use at times 1 final Grand Slam singles triumph around 1990. Graf was knocked-out in the Wimbledon semi-semi that month by Zina Garrison. In the final, the 33-season old Navrátilová blew Garrison away 6-Four, 6-1 to claim a record-breaking 9th Wimbledon singles crown. Though that was her endure Grand Slam singles title, Navrátilová processed deuce farther major finals in the years that followed. Inside 1991, she lost in the America Open final to the occident There are no. Unity Monica Seles. So inside 1994, at a age of 37, Navrátilová reached the Wimbledon final of these survive instance around which she wasted valorously in tercet sets to Conchita Martinez.

Around 1994, Navrátilová retired from a singles tour. She was inducted into a International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.

Since 2000, Navrátilová has returned to the tour to play doubles cases, when once in a while besides swimming singles. Inside 2003, she won a mixed doubles titles at two the Australian Open & Wimbledon partnering Leander Paes. This makes her a oldest ever Grand Slam champion (aged 46 years, Octonary months). a Australian Open triumph mass produced her sole a third streaming video player around history to complete a “boxed set� of Gr& Slam titles by winning the women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles in the least little joe Slams. A Wimbledon win allowed her to equal Billie Jean King’s record of 20 Wimbledon titles (inside singles & double combined) & extended her overall total of Grand Slam titles to 58 (2nd lone to Margaret Court, who won 62). Navratilova won a singles match at the 1st around of Wimbledon around 2004, aged 47 years and Eighter from decatur months, to produce her the oldest streaming video player to win a office singles match in the Open Era.

Above a course of her career, Navrátilová won 167 top-level singles titles (to a higher degree any more streaming video player in the Open Era) & 175 doubles titles. Her virtually all recent title come in August 21, 2005, at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she won a women's doubles event partnering Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

A character Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova from either a animé series Slayers was named fallowing her.

Personal life

Within 1981, shortly after existence granted U.S. citizenship, Navrátilová took the bold step of coming out just about her sexual orientation. Inside response to media speculation all about her relationship by using the author Rita Mae Brown, Navrátilová became one of the 1st major sports stars to announce that she was the lesbian.

Navrátilová’s openness just about her sex most surely numbers her hundreds to thousands around endorsement chance because of corporate homophobia.

From either 1983 to 1991, Navrátilová had an extended-semipermanent relationship using partner Judy Nelson. Their split inside 1991 was messy & involved the good deal-publicized legal wrangle.

Whilst non swimming lawn tennis, Navrátilová is taking part by owning various charities that advantage fleshly rights, underprivileged toddlers & gay rights. She freed an autobiography, simply entitled Martina, around 1985, and likewise co-wrote threesome detective novel in the 1990s.

The vegetarian, Navrátilová has appeared in ad campaigns for PETA.

Navrátilová likewise processed the humourous guest appearance on the gay-themed NBC sitcom Will & Grace, in a 2000 episode called "Lows In The Mid-Eighties", in which a flashback revealed she had been heterosexual until a 1985 relationship with Karen turned her gay.

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (18)

Season Championship Opponent withinside Final Score in Final 1978 Wimbledon Chris Evert Two-6, 6-Four, 7-5 1979 Wimbledon Chris Evert 6-Four, 6-4 1981 Australian Open Chris Evert 6-7, 6-Four, 7-5 1982 French Open Andrea Jaeger 7-6, 6-1 1982 Wimbledon Chris Evert 6-One, Three-6, 6-2 1983 Wimbledon Andrea Jaeger 6-0, 6-3 1983 U.s. Open Chris Evert 6-One, 6-3 1983 Australian Open Kathy Jordan 6-Two, 7-6 1984 French Open Chris Evert 6-Three, 6-1 1984 Wimbledon Chris Evert 7-6, 6-2 198Four United states Open Chris Evert Four-6, 6-4, 6-4 1985 Wimbledon Chris Evert Four-6, 6-Three, 6-2 1985 Australian Open Chris Evert 6-Two, Four-6, 6-2 1986 Wimbledon Hana Mandlikova 7-6, 6-3 1986 America Open Helena Sukova 6-Three, 6-2 1987 Wimbledon Steffi Graf 7-Five, 6-3 1987 America Open Steffi Graf 7-6, 6-1 1990 Wimbledon Zina Garrison 6-Four, 6-1

Runner-ups (14)

Season Championship Opponent witharound Final Score in Final 1975 Australian Open Evonne Goolagong 6-Three, 6-2 1975 French Open Chris Evert Two-6, 6-Two, 6-1 198One United states Open Tracy Austin 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 198Two Australian Open Chris Evert 6-Three, 2-6, 6-3 1985 French Open Chris Evert 6-Three, 6-7, 7-5 1985 America Open Hana Mandlikova 7-6, One-6, 7-6 1986 French Open Chris Evert Two-6, 6-Three, 6-3 1987 Australian Open Hana Mandlikova 7-Five, 7-6 1987 French Open Steffi Graf 6-Four, Four-6, 8-6 1988 Wimbledon Steffi Graf Five-7, 6-Two, 6-1 1989 Wimbledon Steffi Graf 6-Two, 6-7, 6-1 1989 Usa Open Steffi Graf Three-6, 7-Five, 6-1 1991 America Open Monica Seles 7-6, 6-1 199Four Wimbledon Conchita Martinez 6-4, Three-6, 6-3

Grand Slam doubles titles

Women's doubles titles (31)

Month Championship Partner 1975 French Open Chris Evert 1976 Wimbledon Chris Evert 1977 United states of america Open Betty Stove 1978 The states Open Billie Jean King 1979 Wimbledon Billie Jean King 1980 Australian Open Betsy Nagelsen 1980 U.s.a. Open Billie Jean King 1981 Wimbledon Pam Shriver 1982 Australian Open Anne Smith 1982 French Open Pam Shriver 1982 Wimbledon Pam Shriver 1983 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1983 Wimbledon Pam Shriver 1983 Usa Open Pam Shriver 1984 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1984 French Open Pam Shriver 1984 Wimbledon Pam Shriver 1984 U.s. Open Pam Shriver 1985 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1985 French Open Pam Shriver 1986 French Open Andrea Temesvari 1986 Wimbledon Pam Shriver 1986 United states of america Open Pam Shriver 1987 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1987 French Open Pam Shriver 1987 U.s. Open Pam Shriver 1988 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1988 French Open Pam Shriver 1989 Australian Open Pam Shriver 1989 America Open Hana Mandlikova 1990 U.s. Open Gigi Fernandez

Mixed doubles titles (9)

Month Championship Partner 1974 French Open Ivan Molina 1985 French Open Heinz Gunthardt 1985 Wimbledon Paul McNamee 1985 U.s. Open Heinz Gunthardt 1987 America Open Emilio Sanchez 1993 Wimbledon Mark Woodforde 1995 Wimbledon Jonathan Stark 2003 Australian Open Leander Paes 2003 Wimbledon Leander Paes