Martina Navratilova was born on October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.  She is considered the greatest female tennis player from 1965 to 2005 according to Tennis magazine.
Navratilova was only fifteen when she won the Czechoslovakia national tennis championship.  Two years later, Martina won her first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida.  She eventually moved to the United States and became a U.S. citizen some years later, although recently she restored her Czech citizenship.
Martina Navratilova was a left-handed player with superb striking skills that took the game of tennis to heights it never previously encountered.  Navratilova played with aggression, passion, and tremendous strength.
 
In 1978, she won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon by defeating Chris Evert.  Martina successfully obtained the world's 1 ranking for the first time with the win and again beat Evert in 1979 for another Wimbledon title.  She won her third Grand Slam singles title in the Australian Open in 1981.  Also, she won both the Wimbledon and the French Open the next year.  By following a difficult, strict exercise program and using lighter tennis racquets for speed she became the most outstanding player in women's tennis.  In 1983, she won three of the four Grand Slam titles and developed an amazing 86-1 record.  Also, Martina only lost a total of six single matches in a 1982 through 1984 time span.  Navratilova captured the victory at the 1984 French Open allowing her to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles concurrently, although it did not happen in one calendar year.  She went on to accumulate six more wins at the U.S. open tournament and Wimbledon.  Martina was also very successful in other areas of the game by gathering all four Grand Slam women's double titles in 1984.  Navratilova reached the women's singles final at all 11 Grand Slam tournaments held during 1985 to 1987, becoming victorious in six of them.  In 1987, she beat her most challenging new competitor Steffi Gaf to become only the third tennis player in the Open's existence to win the women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles at the same event.  Steffi Gaf won many grueling matches against Martina and eventually broke her total weeks as the World's 1 singles player, but Navratilova still holds the impressive record of 167 singles titles.

Martina Navratilova won her final Grand Slam singles achievement at Wimbledon against Zina Garrison in 1990.  The title gave her a record breaking nine Wimbledon singles victories.  She competed in many tournaments the next following years and reached the finals in some of them.  In 1994, Navratilova reached the Wimbledon final, but lost in three sets.  After that match she soon retired from the singles tour.  In 2000, Martina Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  In 2003, Navratilova and partner Leander Paes won the mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.  By winning the doubles tennis title, that made Martina the oldest ever Grand Slam Champion.  Furthermore, the doubles title in the Australian Open made her one of only three in history to clinch a "boxed set" which is winning the women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles at all four slams.

 Throughout her career, Navratilova won an astounding 167 singles titles.  She has won 18 Grand Slam singles titles during her long, compelling career:  2 at French Open, 3 at Australian Open, 4 at U.S. Open, and 9 at Wimbledon.  Navratilova's total of 1,442 for career single matches, is the most during the open era.
Surprisingly, her last win came from a mixed doubles title with partner Bob Bryan at the 2006 U.S. Open.



1984 U.S. Open Women's Final:     Evert  vs. Navratilova Video

1987 U.S. Open Women's Final:     Graf vs. Navratilova -Great Video