On the 25 June,1991, the Wimbledon Ladies Champion, Martina Navratilov, won her record breaking 100th singles match at Wimbledon, defeating Elna Reinach, South Africa, 4-6; 6-2, 6-4 in the first round, but lost her title in the quarterfinals to Jennifer Capriati, USA, after splitting the first two sets. The 1991 Ladies’ Singles tennis title was won by the number one seed Steffi Graff, Germany.
Martina reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including nine consecutive years from 1982-1990.
Born Martina Šubertová in Prague, Czechoslovakia, her parents divorced when she was three. In 1962 Martina married Miroslav Navrátil, who became her first tennis coach. Martina took the name of her stepfather, adding the feminine suffix ‘ová’. Her father, Miroslav Šubert, was a ski instructor, who committed suicide when she was eight years old.
At the age of 18, Martina was stripped of her Czechoslovakian citizenship when in 1975 she sought political asylum and was granted temporary residence in the United States. Navratilova became a US citizen in 1981, and in 2008 re-acquired her Czechoslovakian citizenship, although making it clear she did not plan to renounce her US nationality.
In her career Martina won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, an all-time record 31 major women’s doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles. She was ranked world No. 1 for a total of 332 weeks in singles, and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks.
Navratilova one of only three women to have accomplished a career Grand Slam in women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles, known as a ‘Grand Slam Boxed Set’, a distinction she shares with only iwo other tennis players, Margaret Court and Doris Hart.
In 2005, ‘Tennis’ magazine named her as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time.
25 June, 2019