Martina Navratilova

In 1981, Martina Navratilova publicly admitted that she is a bisexual and lesbian. She also said that she was in a sexual relationship with Rita Mae Brown.

Between 1984 and 1991 Navratilova got into a long-term relationship with Judy Nelson whom she met in Fort Worth during a tournament.

She has co-written an instruction book on tennis along with Mary Carillo in 1982. She went on to pen her autobiography, which was co-written with George Vecsey, the then sports columnist at ‘The New York Times’.

Martina Navratilova was born on October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic). Tennis ran in her blood as her mother too was an accomplished gymnast and a good tennis player.

Martina took tennis lessons from the Czech champion George Parma while she was just 9. Parma helped her refine her game and laid the foundations for a brilliant career in tennis.

Her first tennis coach was her stepfather Miroslav Navratil, to whose last name she added the suffix (feminine) ‘nova’.

Her biological father Mirek, a professional ski-instructor committed suicide when she was just 9 and this left her devastated.

Martina has a sister named Jana and an older half-brother (Miroslav’s son).

Martina went on to win the national championship in her home country in 1973 when she was barely 15.

In order to get better exposure in the professional circuit, she left her homeland and defected to the U.S. She debuted as a professional tennis player in 1975 while she was still in her teens.

She reached the final of the Australian Open and the French Open but lost to Evonne Goolagoong and Chris Evert Lloyd respectively.

Navratilova won laurels in 1978 when she beat Chris Evert Lloyd at her first Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon.

She went on to defend her Wimbledon title the next year as well by beating Lloyd.

She was declared female athlete of the decade collectively by the Associated Press, National Sports Review and United Press International.

She won the prestigious Flo Hyman Award instituted by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

She shattered Helen Wills Moody’s record after winning her ninth Wimbledon singles championship.

Her contributions to tennis won her WTA’s David Gray award in 1996.

She was declared the Team of the Year in 1977 at the WTA tour, along with Betty Stove, and Billie Jean King during 1978-79.