The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion’s legacy has never been about only records, titles and longevity. She possessed a power that upended everything: identity
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Hana Mandlikova was an enthusiastic member of the Sparta tennis club in Prague at 12 years old. She acted as ball girl when the ladies played league matches, and there was one young woman whose explosive style of play she admired more than anyone else’s. But Mandlikova was shy, and couldn’t bring herself to speak to her.
Eleven years later Mandlikova defeated her hometown hero, Martina Navratilova, in the 1985 US Open final, when the latter was at the peak of her powers. Their match-ups were too few to earn the kind of rivalry immortalised by history. Mandlikova’s Martina moments were squeezed in between Navratilova’s famed decade-long tug-of-war with Chris Evert and the old-timer-newcomer smackdown with Steffi Graf. And yet for a couple of years in the mid-80s, Mandlikova spurred her idol to some extraordinary displays.
Written by Emma John
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jul/02/the-greatest-martina-navratilova-enduring-champion-brave-herself-tennis under the title “The greatest: Martina Navratilova – an enduring champion brave enough to be herself | Emma John”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
