Martina regains Czech citizenship...

They say you can't go home again. But Martina Navratilova now can.

Martina, at a press conference in Tokyo earlier today promoting an exhibition match against Steffi Graf, mentioned that she now plans to maintain duel U.S. - Czech Rebublic nationaility. Martina fled her then-communist homeland in 1975 at the US Open shortly after losing her semifinal match agaist Chris Evert. She became a US citizen in 1981 and was given a heartfelt and prolonged standing ovation that year at the Open by a crowd inspired by her courage.

"I lost it at the time I defected. I got it back on January 9," said Martina, who is planning to open an academy for young tennis players in the Czech Republic.

Martina has always been outspoken whether the topic was tennis, her sexuality or politics and she is no fan of President Bush telling a Czech paper last year: "We elected Bush. That is worse! Against that, nobody chose a communist government in Czechoslovakia."

I remember Connie Chung once asked Martina why she just didn't go back to her homeland if she didn't like the way tjhings were. Well, Connie, Americans have freedom of speech and this is something Martina grasped early and used always. Her honesty is just too much for some people to handel. I, however, admire her greatly for telling her truth.

As far as the tennis, it will be great to see she and Steffi go at it again. They ruled Wimbledon for decades between the two of them with Martina winning nine singles titles there and Steffi winning seven. They played in the finals there three straight years with Steffi winning two of those encounters.

But the two greatest matches I ever watched between these two all-time greats were 1) the semifinals of the 1986 US Open which was the most thrilling match I'd ever seen up until then. Steffi had three match points and at 16, was ready to take over. But Martina said not-so-fast, survived the challenge and went on to win. 2) The next year, Steffi battled Martina in the finals of the French Open and it was a see-saw affair that had great historical significance with Graf finally ascending to the top and winning 8-6 in the third.