Male: Martina Navratilova was one of the greatest tennis players the world has ever seen. Her extraordinary achievements include 167 singles titles more than hanging up a player male or female and the record nine one of them single’s titlist.
Jimmy Connors: I was the best player in the men’s for a number of years and I enjoyed doing that but I’ve always wanted to beat the unofficial woman’s champion too so this is a good way for me to give that a start and you know what Martina and her record and the way she’s played over the past 15 years of her career and her records speaks for itself that I don’t think there’s any better match up that we could have than the two of us can get together and fighting it out.
Male: But Martina’s outstanding sport and her success is only part of the story. There are many great tennis players and without many of them and have a company audience of Martina will become in such an inspirational role model. It’s Martina’s personality and achievements of the tennis court that brought her family up there with greats.
To get the way she is today Martina had to literally give up everything. Born in Prague in 1956, she began hitting the tennis ball at 4-1/2 and won the Czech National Championship at 15. In 1973, she turned professional and started playing in the United States.
After loosing to Chris Evert in the semi finals of the 1975 US Open, the 18-year-od Martina defected to the US.
Martina Navratilova: Why did I decide to do this? Because I’ve heard I didn’t get enough opportunities to play tennis as much as I want under the Czech government. I had to ask every time if I can play this tournament, if I can play that tournament and like I can play team tennis and now when I go back I would have to go back to school for three months and would have any chances to play the tennis at all and I just told that if I want to become number one which I want to that I couldn’t do it under the circumstances at home.
Male: But not everything about Martina’s new country was a good player. Like may teenagers she have ever a taste of the jungle.
Male: That’s one of the sorts of consumer goods that was simply unattainable in communist Czechoslovakia. The weight ballooned and the tennis commentator Bud Collins unkindly dubbed her “Great White Hope” but neither he nor the rest of the world had any inclinations of the strength of Martina’s determination or will power.
And buffing on the new fitness with the basketball and Nancy Lieberman, Martini became one of the fittest players in the game and her remarkable success on it continue throughout the 80’s and early 90’s but with she was still the outsider. The left handed player in the field of right hand had once served and valiant against the sea of baseline players.
Martini’s power aggression dominates in sport making her non populous figure during the years but a breathtaking skills and dedication slowly won over the crowd. She came out as a lesbian in 1981. She’s on communion to endorsements but she won more fans for her honesty and willingness to take the stand.
Martina Navratilova: Well it means that I’m recognized for a lot of stuff that I’ve done over the years but it also means that I need to keep working because we’re still a long way to go in our community before we achieve full equality with our straight brothers and sisters, before we have equal protection under the law, before we had the right to marry etcetera, etcetera. So there is a lot of work to be done and we’re getting closer to it but it’s still a long way to go.
Male: Today Martina divides her time among various courses including underprivileged children. Environmental issues defend their lives. Martini’s reputation presented growing in statue. At 25 Martina had only three titles to her name but their extraordinary fitness and resilience sort of win her last Grand Slam between the aged 49 making her the oldest Grand Slam champion ever. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.
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