Recently in Martina Navratilova Category

The marvelous Martina, one of the bravest persons in the history of the LGBT equal rights movement, celebrates her 52nd birthday. Very few stars in any sport have had the courage to come out - even today. Martina did it 30 years ago when she was the number one player in the world. It didn't stop her from winning nor did the sometimes hostile crowds who, as the years went on, embraced her - an openly gay champion.

Earlier Martina posts:
--Exclusive: Martina Navratilova on the early days of being out...
-- Martina and Chris: Then and Now
-- Martina and Chris: This longtime gay-straight alliance on "Oprah" today
-- Interview: Martina Navratilova sets the record straight...-- My Interview with Martina: Part 2

It's the 30th anniversary of Martina Navratilova's first singles title at Wimbledon. So what could be more fitting than being back on the famed grass courts of the All England Tennis Club? Here she is on Tuesday during a Ladies' invitation doubles tennis match with former rival Helena Sukova.
After that first singles title in 1978, Martina would win the women's crown eight more times and when you combine that with victories in women's doubles and mixed diubles, she has a record-tying 20 Wimbledon titles (Billie Jean King also has 20).

A few days ago, Martina Navratilova and her arch-rival from her playing days - Chris Evert - were scheduled to appear on "Oprah" together for a show on extraordonary friendships. It's been 20 years since they last played an official match on the women's pro tennis tour. In all, they had played 80 times dating back to 1973 with the finals tally being 43-37 in Martina's favor. They may have been fierce rivals on the court, but off the court, they had been close friends since the early 70s and remain so to this day.

As Chris' career was winding down, Martina began a fierce rivalry with another blonde superstar with steely determination: Steffi Graf. We talked about Martina playing Steffi recently in an exhibition match in Japan and she said the time they spent together there was probably the most they had ever really talked and hung out. Of the match itself Martina said: "It was fantastic. I lost 8-7 so it was close. Her chip backhand worked better than it used to. It was good, it went well. It was amazing playing her again. The first couple of games I felt like I was in a time warp. We hadn't played since 1994. It was like time stood still."

When Martina was dominating the game in the 80s, there was a stretch of five years when she would only lose 2-3 matches each season. Roger Federer has had a similar record since 2004 but is slipping a bit these days. I wondered what Martina thought of that: "He's dominated so much that when you lose a set or match, everyone gets their hopes up because they were beaten into submission. They think they have a shot at him. They are going to try that much nharder. The intimidation factor is a little dented at the moment. When you are number one, everyione plays their best against you.
"Quite frankly, I think he could use a coach," Martina added. "It's hard to get better on your own, to dissect the players. You need somebody to bounce ideas off of."

And what about the rising star Novak Djokovic who many think will end up replacing Federer at the top? "He's fantastic," Martina said. "I saw him play over two years ago and I thought, 'This guy is gonna be great. He has that presence and all the tools and he wanted it, you could tell."

It was fun to talk about tennis with Martina but the main reason for our chat was to set the record straight on false stories that she was renouncing her American citizenship which I detailed in a post yesterday. Here are some more comments on that and on the upcoming presidential election:

On speaking out in the Bush era: "It is peculiar, in 1992 when Clinton became president and he created Don't Ask, Don't Tell and I actually said, 'President clinton wimped out.' That was reported and that was the end of it. I said about four months in the Bush admininistration 'It seems to me that all the decisions that have been made are based on money and not good for the people, people were wanting to send me back to Czech Republic. And that was piror to 9-11."

Who will she vote for? "I'd like to see a change in adminstration. The war was wrong from the get-go and John McCain would be hapy to stay there the next 100 years. As far as Hillary (Clinton) and (Barack) Obama, I think they are both qualified but Hillary has more experience. For Obama to be president, to compare it to sports, a rookie captain of the football who might be the best player but (doesn't) know the ropes yet."

All Martina Navratilova wanted was to get duel citizenship so she could travel easily between the United States - where she defected to 33 years ago - and the Czech Republic where she was born.

But this led to a flood of erroneous stories published in recent weeks that the nine-time Wimbledon champion was leaving the U.S. in disgust over the policies of the Bush administration.

"Somehow, out came these reports that I was going to denounce my citizenship," Martina told me this week. "I never said those things and I don't know how it got to that point. Next thing I know, I read that I'm leaving America. It's just astonishing and insulting."

The 51-year-old athlete, who retired from pro tennis after winning the mixed doubles title at the U.S. Open in 2006, has been a U.S. citizen since 1981. Martina fled the then-communist Czechoslovakia in 1975 in a highly-publicized defection that was of great risk to her at the time. She was just 18 and didn't know if she'd ever see her family again.

That's why the false stories have cut so deep.

"This goes to the core of who I am and why I'm here," she said. "I'm very loyal and very grateful. This is my home and l've lived her for over 30 years. To have this kind of stuff said is really hurtful and disappointing. I'd like to get to the bottom of it."

"Millions of Americans have duel citizenship and I get roasted for it," Martina added. "I don't think anything less of America. But I'm proud of where I came from. When it was communist I wasn't proud of the government. Now it's a good place to be. There's nothing to be embarassed about."

The reasons for obtaining duel citizenship were actually quite simple: "It was practical because I travel a lot and I'm doing some business in the Czech Republic and have been on a monthly basis for a few years and my mom was sick."

Martina has long been something of a lightening rod for criticism because of her unfailingly outspoken nature. I reminded her of the time she was critical of the Bush administration while being interviewed by Connie Chung on CNN several years back. Chung shockingly wondered aloud why Martina just didn't go back to the Czech Republic if she didn't like the way things were in the U.S.

Martina now says of the incident: "I wondered, so if (Connie Chung) didn't agree with something she should go back to China? I thought the whole point of democracy is to be able to disagree with the govenment. That's the beauty of America."

As a major tennis fan, I've followed Martina's career for many years and she has always come across as incredibly partriotic, proudly played for the U.S. in the Fed Cup international team competition (the picture above is from the 1986 Fed Cup when the U.S., led by Martina and Chris Evert, defeated Czechoslovakia in Prague) as well as in the Olympic Games. But there is one moment from her career that I will never forget: she had just lost to Monica Seles in the finals of the 1991 U.S. Open and the crowd gave her one of the most rapturous ovations that I can ever remember.

Martina tearfully made some remarks then wrapped up her speech by saying: "I'm so damned proud to be an American."

That pretty much says it all.

Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova always did bring out the best in each other.

The tennis legends played the exhibition "Dream Match 2008" before a sellout crowd at Tokyo's Ariake Stadium on Saturday and Steffi managed to edge Martina in a one-set contest 8-7 after winning a tiebreaker 10-5. It was their first match in 14 years,

"It was great that it went to a tiebreaker," Graf said afterward. "It was a lot of fun playing Martina again. It brought back so many memories."

Martina summed it up this way: "It was almost a surreal experience. I felt like we went back in time. People always asked me who the toughest player to play against was and if it wasn't Steffi, I don't know who it was."

Before retiring, the two had met 18 times and each won nine times.

TOGETHER AGAIN: Quick! Somebody buy me a ticket to Tokyo! The chance to see Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova play each other in an exhibition called "The Dream Match 2008" would be a dream come true. Here are the two all-time greats greeting each other as they begin a practice session earlier today.

CLASS ACT: Steffi has done it just about as good as anyone ever has. Wimbledon champ seven times, French Open champ six times, US Open champ five times, Australian Open champ four times; two-time Olympic gold medalist (1984, 88), one silver medal (1992). Now she's a busy mom of two adorable kids and the wife of some guy named Andre Agassi.