Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era.
83 Facts About Martina Navratilova
2.
Alongside Chris Evert, her greatest rival, Martina Navratilova dominated women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s.
3.
Martina Navratilova was ranked as the world No 1 in singles for a total of 332 weeks, and for a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both disciplines for over 200 weeks.
4.
Martina Navratilova won 167 top-level singles titles and 177 doubles titles, both the Open Era records.
5.
Martina Navratilova won a record six consecutive singles majors across 1983 and 1984 while simultaneously winning the Grand Slam in doubles.
6.
Martina Navratilova reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including for nine consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the title a record nine times.
7.
Martina Navratilova is one of the three tennis players, along with Margaret Court and Doris Hart, to have accomplished a career Grand Slam in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, called the career "Boxed Set".
8.
Martina Navratilova won her last major title, the mixed doubles crown at the 2006 US Open, shortly before her 50th birthday, and 32 years after her first major title in 1974.
9.
Originally from Czechoslovakia, Martina Navratilova was stripped of her citizenship when, in 1975 at age 18, she asked the United States for political asylum and was granted temporary residence.
10.
On January 9,2008, Martina Navratilova acquired Czech citizenship, thus becoming a dual citizen.
11.
Martina Navratilova stated she has not renounced her US citizenship nor does she plan to do so, and that reclaiming Czech nationality was not politically motivated.
12.
Martina Navratilova has been openly lesbian since 1981, and has been an activist for LGBT issues.
13.
Martina Navratilova's parents divorced when she was three, and her mother, an accomplished gymnast, tennis player, and ski instructor, moved the family to Revnice.
14.
Martina Navratilova's father, Mirek, was a ski instructor.
15.
Martina Navratilova has a younger sister, Jana, and an older paternal half-brother.
16.
Martina Navratilova's grandmother, Agnes Semanska, was a tennis player for the Czechoslovak Federation before the Second World War and had a ranking as high as No 2 among Czech women during her amateur career.
17.
When Martina Navratilova was four, she was hitting a tennis ball off a concrete wall and started to play tennis regularly at age seven.
18.
Martina Navratilova made the quarterfinals the next year and lost to Helga Masthoff.
19.
Martina Navratilova won her first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida in 1974 at the age of 17.
20.
Martina Navratilova was the runner-up at two major singles tournaments in 1975; the Australian Open and the French Open.
21.
Also, in 1975, Martina Navratilova teamed with world number one Evert to win the French Open women's doubles title, Martina Navratilova's first major title outside of mixed doubles.
22.
Martina Navratilova won her first major singles title at Wimbledon in 1978, where she defeated Evert in three sets in the final and captured the world No 1 ranking for the first time on the WTA computer, a position she held until Evert took it back in January 1979.
23.
In 1981, Martina Navratilova won her third major singles title by defeating Evert in the final of the Australian Open.
24.
Martina Navratilova defeated Evert to reach the final of the US Open, where she lost a third set tiebreak to Tracy Austin.
25.
Martina Navratilova won both Wimbledon and the French Open in 1982.
26.
Martina Navratilova's winning percentage was the best ever for a post-1968 professional tennis player.
27.
Martina Navratilova won the 1984 French Open, thus holding all four major singles titles simultaneously.
28.
Martina Navratilova's accomplishment was declared a "Grand Slam" by Philippe Chatrier, president of the International Tennis Federation, although some tennis observers countered that it was not a true slam because the titles had not been won in a single calendar year.
29.
Martina Navratilova extended her major singles tournament winning streak to a record-equalling six following wins at Wimbledon and the US Open.
30.
Martina Navratilova's victory meant she became the first player to win majors on clay, grass and hard court on the same year.
31.
Martina Navratilova entered the 1984 Australian Open with a chance of winning all four titles in the same year.
32.
Martina Navratilova reached the US Open final five consecutive times from 1983 through 1987 and appeared in the French Open final five out of six years from 1982 through 1987.
33.
In 1985, Martina Navratilova played in what many consider to be perhaps the best woman's match of all time, the French Open final against Chris Evert.
34.
However, Martina Navratilova defeated Graf in straight sets in the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open.
35.
Martina Navratilova reached all four Grand Slam finals in 1987, winning two of them.
36.
Martina Navratilova did not reach the finals of any of the other Grand Slam events but did win nine tournaments enabling her to claim the No 2 ranking behind Graf.
37.
Martina Navratilova, who skipped the French Open that year, did win eight titles and was able to capture the No 2 ranking behind Graf for the third straight year.
38.
Martina Navratilova won four other tournaments that year, although she did not participate in the Australian or French Opens, and finished the year ranked No 3 in the world, narrowly edged by 16-year-old Monica Seles for the No 2 spot.
39.
Connors was allowed only one serve per point, and Martina Navratilova was allowed to hit into half the doubles court.
40.
Martina Navratilova played for the Boston Lobsters in the World TeamTennis pro league through the 2009 season.
41.
Martina Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.
42.
In 2000, Martina Navratilova returned to the tour to mostly play doubles events, while rarely playing singles.
43.
Martina Navratilova made a return to singles at the 2004 French Open after an absence of 10 years, but she was defeated by Gisela Dulko in the first round.
44.
Martina Navratilova then lost her second round match with the same player who had beaten her at the French Open the previous month, Gisela Dulko, in three sets.
45.
On Thursday, July 6,2006, Martina Navratilova played her last matches at Wimbledon, with partner Liezel Huber losing a quarterfinal match in women's doubles to fourth seeds and eventual champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, and later in the same day with partner Mark Knowles losing in the third round of mixed doubles to eventual champions Andy Ram and Vera Zvonareva.
46.
Martina Navratilova had said that her last Wimbledon wasn't about breaking her record shared with Billie Jean King of 20 championships.
47.
Martina Navratilova capped her career by winning the mixed doubles title, her 41st major doubles title and 177th overall, at the 2006 US Open with American doubles specialist Bob Bryan.
48.
Martina Navratilova won 167 top-level singles titles and 177 doubles titles.
49.
Martina Navratilova won 18 major singles titles: nine at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, three at the Australian Open, and two at the French Open.
50.
Martina Navratilova is the only player to have won at least one tour event for 21 consecutive years and won the singles and doubles at the same event a record 84 times.
51.
Martina Navratilova was ranked in the world's top 3 in singles for 15 years between 1977 and 1993.
52.
In December 2014, it was announced that Martina Navratilova had joined Agnieszka Radwanska's coaching staff.
53.
Martina Navratilova had earlier co-written a tennis instruction book with Mary Carillo in 1982, entitled Tennis My Way.
54.
Martina Navratilova later wrote three mystery novels with Liz Nickles: The Total Zone, Breaking Point, and Killer Instinct.
55.
Martina Navratilova's most recent literary effort was a health and fitness book entitled Shape Your Self, which came out in 2006.
56.
From 1984 to 1991, Martina Navratilova had a long-term relationship with Judy Nelson, whom she met at a tournament in Fort Worth in 1982.
57.
On September 6,2014, Martina Navratilova proposed to her long-time girlfriend Julia Lemigova, a former Miss USSR, at the US Open.
58.
Martina Navratilova began to wear glasses in 1985 and recalled that her vision had begun to deteriorate in 1984.
59.
Martina Navratilova continued to wear glasses for tennis for many years.
60.
In December 2010, Martina Navratilova was hospitalized after developing high altitude pulmonary edema while attempting a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
61.
In January 2023, Martina Navratilova was diagnosed with both throat and breast cancer.
62.
Martina Navratilova is involved with various charities that benefit animal rights, underprivileged children, and gay rights.
63.
Martina Navratilova is a Democrat, and has donated more than $25,000 to Democratic campaigns.
64.
In 1993, Martina Navratilova spoke before the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
65.
Martina Navratilova serves as the Health and Fitness Ambassador for AARP in an alliance created to help AARP's millions of members lead active, healthy lives.
66.
Martina Navratilova is a vocal opponent of communism and was vocal in opposition to the Soviet Bloc power structure that compelled her to flee her native Czechoslovakia.
67.
Martina Navratilova has denounced the Soviet Union's rule in Czechoslovakia, maintaining that she refuses to speak Russian, which she was forced to learn in school.
68.
Martina Navratilova was a guest on CNN's Connie Chung Tonight show on July 17,2002.
69.
Martina Navratilova said that the remarks referred to what she perceived as a trend of centralization of government power and a loss of personal freedom.
70.
Martina Navratilova is critical of allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports.
71.
In March 2019, Martina Navratilova apologized for using the term "cheating" when discussing whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women's sport.
72.
In 2021, Martina Navratilova became a leader of the Women's Sports Policy Working Group, formed in response to President Joe Biden's Executive Order 13988 mandate that offered blanket inclusion for all trans women athletes.
73.
Martina Navratilova is considered one of the best female tennis players of all time and in 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1965 through 2005, directly over Steffi Graf.
74.
In 2006, Martina Navratilova was named by Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the LGBT History Month.
75.
In 2009, Martina Navratilova was awarded the International Tennis Federation's highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award, for her contributions to tennis both on and off the court.
76.
On May 12,2016, Martina Navratilova was made an honorary fellow of Lucy Cavendish College of the University of Cambridge.
77.
Martina Navratilova's role was the more significant; she partnered with the lead male character Jonathan Hart in a mixed doubles match.
78.
In November 2008, Martina Navratilova appeared on the UK's ITV series Series 8 of I'm a Celebrity.
79.
In February 2012, Martina Navratilova was announced as a cast member on the 14th season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
80.
Martina Navratilova was partnered with Tony Dovolani, but they were the first pair eliminated.
81.
Martina Navratilova guest-starred as a dissatisfied Yelp reviewer in episode three of the third season of absurdist comedy Portlandia.
82.
In 2019, Martina Navratilova had a recurring role portraying Brigitte, a horse trainer, in the Netflix series, The Politician.
83.
Martina Navratilova has written a number of books on tennis, as well as a few mysteries.