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“I learned my lesson from my mother at an early age: sports are good for young women. It’s good to compete, good to run, good to sweat, good to get dirty, good to feel tired and healthy and refreshed. We had no idea of tomboys–there is no word for it in the Czech language. Women played sports and had families and jobs. That simple. My mother was my role model.”– Martina Navratilova, from her autobiography called Martina.

And compete she did. Martina Navratilova took the world by storm during a time when women were seeking equality in the workplace as well as on the court. Martina won the Wimbledon singles championship both in 1978 and ‘79, holding the number one ranked position in the world. Then from the period of 1982 to 1987, she placed in the top ranked position for 260 of the 282 weeks therein. She also won the U.S. Open championship four times (in 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987), as well as winning the French Open twice (in 1982 and 1984.) She took the Australian Open three times (1981, 1983, and 1985) to boot. That kind of endurance and skill is practically unheard of in an athlete. But Martina did it in her uniquely self-assured style.

One of her greatest rivals was a player named Chris Evert, with whom she had formerly played with as a doubles partner. Martina beat Chris Evert’s record for career singles championships in 1992 when she won her 158th professional tennis title. Her most recent record-breaking feat was her victory over Monica Seles in 1993 at the Paris Open– becoming the oldest player to beat a number-one ranked professional player. She finished her career having won the most singles championships of any female professional tennis player ever. Martina retired from professional singles competition in 1994. However, she served as the president of the Women’s Tennis Association Tour Player’s Association the next year. Born in 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Martina Navratilova became the national champion of her home country by 1972. There she reigned supreme until 1975 when she immigrated to the United States where she immediately became the top player on the women’s professional tennis tour. Martina’s style of playing was more aggressive and athletic than the tennis world was used to seeing among women. Her powerful physique set a new body standard which contemporary players now strive to achieve. She challenged people’s ideas of the feminine athlete, and wooed them with her undeniable skill and finesse.

The press didn’t know quite what to do with her. Previously the image of a female tennis player had been more like a genteel lady taking graceful steps in little white shoes on the tennis court. Then came Martina, who sweated profusely, dove for the ball, swaggered onto the court and had an obviously powerful concentration. She pushed the limits of her own physical endurance, and opened the doors of perception surrounding powerful female athletes today. Hats off to Martina Navratilova!