Word: navratilova
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Martina Navratilova brought her surgically repaired knees, prescription eyeglasses and fragile psyche this year to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for a sentimental valedictory on tennis' most hallowed turf. No expectations. Just an opportunity to bask one more time in the genteel applause of the faithful at Centre Court. After all, Martina is 37, and the serve no longer sizzles. Wimbledon and its slippery green amalgam of fescue and ryegrass are now the domain of five-time champion Steffi Graf, 25. It's a surface for the young and the restless. On grass either you are quick...
...sweatbands and made her last dance the most memorable Wimbledon in years. Against all odds, she swept through to the finals, vanquishing veterans and prodigies alike. Meanwhile Graf fell out in the first round, and second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 22, was sent to the sidelines in the fourth. Navratilova could be forgiven last Saturday if she was overcome with the urge to pinch herself. For there she was on Centre Court again, playing for an unprecedented 10th ladies' singles title against third- seeded Conchita Martinez, 22, a baseline basher from Barcelona, Spain...
ONLY IN DREAMS -- DREAMS SHARED BY LEGIONS OF THE NO LONGER YOUNG -- IS Martina Navratilova likely to turn back time and win a 10th Wimbledon singles title on her farewell visit, starting this week. On the Centre Court greensward, Navratilova has been Jesse Owens in Berlin, Diego Maradona in Mexico City, the athlete at one with the place and the moment. The speedy surface suited her attacking game. The ritual and formality suited her sense of history. She loved racing to the net, secure that any shot she kept in bounds would be a winner, and she loved curtsying when...
...Navratilova was tough enough to withstand defection from Communist Czechoslovakia as a teenager, knowing she might never see her family again. She was gritty enough to bear the burden of being the world's most famous gay athlete, made harsher because she was also the first woman in her sport to train the way men do. Yet this stubborn competitor was always fragile, often on the edge of a "Martina meltdown." No one wins everything, but it seemed Navratilova should. Her fans still agonize over the 1989 U.S. Open, when she was two games away from beating Steffi Graf...
...Navratilova has won more matches and more money, $19 million, than any other woman in tennis. In one of the most remarkable feats of endurance in any sport, she has taken at least one title for 22 straight years and ranked in the top five for two decades. Barring a miracle, her numbers won't grow more impressive during Wimbledon fortnight. But for a match or maybe a few, there will be glints of the lightning serve, the headlong dash to net, the utterly % unreturnable volley, the predator's grin, the confidence of an artist whose heart and mind know...