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Wimbledon starts Monday. In honor of the grass-court Grand Slam, I want to write about the greatest Wimbledon women’s champion of them all: Martina Navratilova.
The title of this article doesn’t necessarily describe the entire career of Martina Navratilova, but it sums up how she was almost impossible to defeat from 1982 to1986, her peak years.
Martina Navratilova turned pro in 1973.
When Navratilova launched her career, the WTA ruling class consisted of Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and Evonne Goolagong. Evert and Goolagong were assumed to be the successors to the Court and King royalty. While that was true for a while, Navratilova was far too gifted a player to be prevented from being a huge factor in every tournament.
Martina Navratilova was blessed with incredible hand-eye coordination, great power and excellent mobility. She also has a wonderful variety of shots that she could use if necessary.
She is a lefty, which always helps. Her serve, as with many lefties, in the ad court could pull any player off the court. Navratilova’s slice serve on that side seemed to pull the returner into the stands! Navratilova generally would be at the net, often carving drop volleys into the empty court.
Chrissie Evert squared off against Navratilova an astounding 80 times—including facing off in 60 finals. In a recent ESPN conference call with the media, Evert said Navratilova’s completeness, more than her leftiness, posed the biggest problems.
“I owned every left-handed player in the world—except Martina Navratilova,” Evert told the media on an ESPN conference call. “That wasn’t because Martina was left-handed.
"It was because she just was a great all-court player. She serve-and-volleyed on the grass. She just had all the shots. So credit to her that she had it all. I generally speaking, just like John [McEnroe], had to problem-solve right in the beginning of the match. I had to make those adjustments right away."
Navratilova was born in Czechoslovakia in 1956. She had the courage to defect to the United States in 1975 and within a short time, became a United States citizen.
That year she was very successful in the majors, reaching the finals of the Australian Open and the French Open, losing to Goolagong and Evert respectively.
The year 1978 was her breakthrough year. It was the year she won her first Wimbledon over Evert, 2-6 6-4 7-5. She was trailing throughout the third set until she won the last three games to triumph in a dramatic match.
The next year Martina repeated as champion, defeating Evert, of course in the final 6-4 6-4. Navratilova finished 1979 as year-end No. 1. From 1978 to 1990 Navratilova won Wimbledon 9 times in 13 years including a streak of 6 Wimbledons in a row from 1982 to 1987. Amazing.
Navratilova had the perfect game for grass in those days. Frankly you could argue that she had the perfect game and talent for any surface when she was at her peak starting in 1982. First of all was her great serve, which was a powerful lefty serve. As I wrote earlier, her slice serve in the ad court could pull her opponent off the court where Martina would put the return away at the net.
Her backhand was versatile, although not quite as strong as her forehand. On most surfaces anything short to the backhand would have Navratilova hitting powerful backhand approach shots where she would be ready at the net to volley any return or smash an overhead to punish a lob. I’m not sure if any player in history could pass or lob effectively on a consistent basis against Navratilova if she had a good approach or came in behind a strong serve. Navratilova could very well have had the greatest volley in the history of women’s tennis.
Martina Navratilova’s peak years were unparalleled in the Open Era. She won 427 matches and lost only 14 from 1982 to 1986 for a super winning percentage of 96.83%.
By the way, in my previous article on a discussion on potential Women’s GOATs I made a minor unforced error in that I had Navratilova at 15 losses. She did a bit better than that with only 14 losses. Sorry Martina.
During this period she won 70 of 84 tournaments entered and 12 of 19 majors entered. Navratilova won 6 straight majors during this time.
In the Open Era no one has matched that dominance for a consecutive five-year period.
Martina won 18 majors, which in itself is a fabulous number. Admittedly it is not as high as Margaret Court at 24, Serena Williams at 23 and Steffi Graf at 22.
In defense of Navratilova, however, for many years during Navratilova’s career winning majors was not necessarily the end all. Players nowadays are basically expected to attend every major tournament. In the 1970s this was not the case.
I would tend to think that if Navratilova played the Australian Open, which was on grass at that time more often in the 1970s that she would have won at least two Australian Opens. She did not play the Australian Open from 1975 to 1979. She was clearly the best grass court player in the world in 1978 and 1979 and one of the best from 1975 to 1977.
Navratilova also had an excellent chance to win the French Open in some of those years that she missed, especially considering that Chris Evert, who was virtually unbeatable in those days on a clay court did not play the French from 1976 to 1978. Martina reached the finals of the French in 1975 losing to Evert after taking the first set. Martina clearly would have had an excellent chance to win the French in those three non-Evert years but she did not enter the French in those years.
It's very probable that Navratilova would have easily won over 20 majors if the tournament situation is what it is today.
I’m going to recycle a portion of my last article on potential Women GOATs in tennis history and look at a three-way comparison between three iconic champions: Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams.
Let’s look at a three-way comparison.
Serena Williams won 23 majors, which is fantastic.
Steffi Graf won 22 majors, which is terrific.
Martina Navratilova won 18 majors, which is also excellent.
Navratilova is third here by a decent margin but as I wrote earlier, majors were not as important in the early years of Navratilova’s career. Chris Evert missed the 1977 French for example to play World Team Tennis.
Serena won the 23 majors in 85 attempts for 27.06%.
Graf won 22 majors in 54 attempts for 40.74%.
Navratilova won 18 majors in 67 attempts for 26.87%.
I almost shouldn’t count the last two majors since Navratilova retired for a decade and came back in 2004 when she would turn 48. If she didn’t come back, it would be 27.69%. Still, you have to count it because it’s part of her record.
Navratilova is second or third here depending on whether you count the years she played the French Open and Wimbledon in 2004.
Serena Williams won 73 tournaments in her career out of 240 played for 30.42%.
Steffi Graf won 107 tournaments in her career out of 214 played for 50%.
Martina Navratilova won 167 tournaments in her career out of 390 played for 42.82%.
As you can see here, Navratilova is not just No. 1 in this category but by far No. 1 in total tournaments won for a career out of the three.
Serena Williams has a won-loss record lifetime of 849-151 for 84.98%.
Steffi Graf has a won-loss record lifetime of 885-106 for 89.30%.
Martina Navratilova had a won-loss lifetime of 1442-219 for 86.82%.
Navratilova is second here but you have to consider that she played until her late 30s as a regular WTA player. Graf ended her career early so her percentage numbers remained high. Serena Williams also played a long time but she didn’t play nearly as many tournaments as Navratilova.
Serena Williams won 4 majors in a row.
Steffi Graf won 5 majors in a row.
Martina Navratilova won 6 majors in a row.
Martina Navratilova was No. 1 here which indicates, at least to me, peak level dominance.
Serena Williams, in her best percentage 5 consecutive years, was 379-25 for 91.78% with 9 majors out of 20.
Steffi Graf, in her best percentage 5 consecutive years, was 370-20 for 94.87% with 10 majors out of 19.
Martina Navratilova, in her best percentage 5 consecutive years was 427-14 for 96.82% with 12 majors out of 19.
Navratilova is by far No. 1 here with by far the most match wins and easily the fewest losses. Her peak seems to be higher than anyone else, at least when you look at the numbers.
Serena Williams was in the Top 10 in the world for 16 years.
Steffi Graf was in the Top 10 in the world for 13 years.
Martina Navratilova was in the Top 10 in the world for 21 years.
Clearly Navratilova is No. 1 in this category by a lot and shows her great consistency. The 21 years in the top ten were all consecutive for 1974 to 1994.
Serena Williams was year-end No. 1 in the world 5 times.
Steffi Graf was year-end No. 1 in the world 8 times.
Martina Navratilova was year-end No. 1 in the world 6 or 7 times. Some have Navratilova as No. 1 in 1978, some do not.
Graf is No. 1 here but Navratilova was a clear second with Serena Williams third.
As you can see Martina compares to each of the other two super greats very well. In total tournaments won, she obliterates the other two. She won the most majors during her peak years and had the highest winning percentage in her peak years. She was also in the Top 10 for the most years easily.
Is Martina Navratilova truly the greatest Wimbledon champion ever?
Definitely, by number of Wimbledon singles titles, she is the greatest.
Navratilova won 9 of them including a period in which she won 9 Wimbledon singles titles in 13 years! She won 6 Wimbledons in a row from 1982 to 1987. She was finally stopped by Steffi Graf in 1988 (the year of Graf’s Golden Slam in which she won the Grand Slam and the Olympic Singles Gold Medal) in 3 sets.
Navratilova won 9 Wimbledons in 23 attempts. If she had stopped after 1990, when perhaps she was declining she would have been at 9 Wimbledons in 18 attempts. She was also in 3 finals which she lost but it still was a great achievement.
Players like Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills had better percentages at Wimbledon than Navratilova and they were of course fabulous players.
However, having studied these legends, I believe if peak Navratilova played them that Navratilova would have won the majority of the grass court matches.
Of course, this is a subjective opinion, but it is based on the belief that Navratilova played on an organized Professional Tour with players training to do well on the tour.
While Lenglen and Wills played fine competition, I do not believe they were at the level of the competition Navratilova faced. Perhaps it may be different if Lenglen and Wills grew up in Navratilova’s day. Still, if the styles were the same, I think Navratilova would be the favorite to win on grass, perhaps all surfaces at her peak.
Navratilova faced great players at Wimbledon like Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Billie Jean King, Tracy Austin, Evonne Goolagong, Rosie Casals, Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikova, Gabriela Sabatini, Monica Seles among others.
This is an incredible lineup of opponents that Navratilova had to face to win Wimbledon. Four of these players won Wimbledon titles in singles. Each of those four won more than one Wimbledon singles title!
All of them except for Shriver won majors and Shriver won many top tournaments in her career including a number of grass court tournaments.
When Navratilova played Wimbledon at her peak, she was like a juggernaut crushing everyone in sight. Many players felt they had no chance to defeat her and they generally were right.
Her game was perfect for the Wimbledon grass in those days with her great serve, unequaled volley, overhead and excellent return. Navratilova’s mobility was superb on grass and her sliced backhand was a deadly approach shot.
Would Navratilova do well today on the different Wimbledon grass, different racquets and strings?
I have no doubt she would.
I read another interview on Hall of Famer Steve Flink's website with Martina discussing this. Here is some of that interview:
While we were talking about the current game, I was curious to hear how Martina felt about whether or not she would have had to alter her game to compete in today’s world of professional tennis. Would she have needed to serve-and-volley more selectively, switch to a semi-western forehand, or do anything else differently?
“That is such a great question,” she asserts. “I would have to definitely mix it up more on the serve-and-volley. I would serve-and-volley very selectively on the second serve and maybe serve-and-volley 75 percent of the time on my first serve instead of 95%. It would depend on the surface, of course, and how they were playing. But I would have to mix it up more and most of all I would be running around my backhand to hit forehands. I would definitely be putting more topspin on the ball. Even now when I play I use so much more of my hand. My strokes have evolved with the equipment so I would be playing like Roger Federer but coming in more [than him].”
As for the forehand grip question, Navratilova replied:
“Yes, I have already changed it. I don’t have a set grip because I vary it depending on the height of the ball. But I definitely have been moving it around quite a bit. And just the other day, I realized how much I grip down when I am hitting an overhead. The racket is almost falling out of my hand. So if I was playing now, it would be a semi-western grip and I would emulate Roger’s forehand for sure and look for that shot more. It used to be that when Chris would hit to my backhand and the ball was two inches from the center of the court on that side, I would take it as a backhand. It didn’t occur to me to run around my backhand, even though there were players like Sue Barker and Virginia Ruzici that were doing that. I didn’t feel the need because I could work the ball around with my slice and use the court as a diagonal. I think I would be able to expose the players now and make them hit shots they don’t want to hit, but I would have had to go about playing differently than I used to.”
It's clear, at least to me, that Navratilova would adapt easily to today’s game. It would have been fascinating if we could have a time machine to have 24-year-old Navratilova playing and adjusting to today’s game. With her great grass court prowess, the other players, accustomed to baseliners, would have to adjust to Martina’s all-court skills.
In my view, it’s very clear Martina Navratilova is the all-time greatest Wimbledon women’s champion.
Raymond Lee is a Tennis Now contributing writer, tennis historian and avid tennis player who lives in New York. He has written about tennis for more than three decades serving as a contributing writer for Tennis Week Magazine and TennisWeek.com. Raymond Lee joined the Tennis Now staff in 2010.
Check out Raymond Lee's Articles: The Greatest Over Age 30 Players of All Time, Star Turns: Top Tournament Performances in Tennis History, One for One: Who is the GOAT for One Match? Celebrating 50th Anniversary of John Newcombe's 1973 US Open Win, Why Novak Djokovic Can Win 30 Slams and Holy Grail: Why Winning the Calendar Grand Slam is Toughest Task in Sport and The Greatest Men Clay-Court Champions Of All Time