August 9th, 2007

Martina Navratilova's final Wimbledon appearance, and this time she means it

When I was growing up, our family followed professional tennis on television, and Wimbledon was of course the tennis tournament of the year. During those years, it seemed always to boil down to Martina Navratilova against Chris Evert in the final, and the family’s loyalties were split. (I sided with the old guard and pulled for Chris Evert.) In this NPR interview, Martina Navratilova talks about her retirement (she really means it this time), looks back at the years she dominated women’s tennis, how she and Chris Evert got along off the court, and how she is disappointed with the current generation of players who seem to spend more time posturing than just hitting the ball.

Although I wasn’t a big fan of hers during those years long ago, I’ve since come around and greatly admire not just Navratilova’s accomplishments, but even more her sportsmanship and grace in what has become an increasingly antagonistic sport. So here’s a salute to arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time.

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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