Tennis: December 2007 Archives

When Martina Navratilova rang me up before lunch today, it was to talk about her new role as an ambassador for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and I will post her comments about that tomorrow on this site and in my LA Daily News print column later this week.

First, I want to share the part of our conversation that focused on her coming out a lesbian in the late 70s and what she went through as she battled America's sweetheart Chris Evert on tennis courts around the world for the sports biggest titles. While news of a female athlete coming out would barely raise an eyebrow these days, back then, it was a very big deal and Martina displayed enormous courage in doing so.

"I don't know one person who's come out who wants to go back in," Martina said. "It was rough back then. It was rough when I walked on court, people would be clapping when Chris [Evert] or Steffi [Graf] were announced. I'd come out and some people wouldn't clap. Imagine if they didn't clap for Roger Federer if he was gay. He's the best tennis player in the world. So that hurt. To me, my sexuality should be irrelevant, it's not anything to be ashamed of. I was upset that people would think it was a negative and judge me just on that."

While Evert ruled the game for the second half of the 70s, Martina supplanted her from the top in 1982. They continued to battle for dominance but for a good three years, Martina basically owned Chris at one point beating her 13 times in a row. As Evert began to have some wins again - most notably in the 1985 and 1986 French Open finals against Martina - and Steffi Graf took over the top ranking in 1987, the public saw past Martina's dominance and began to recognize her for who she was.

BTW: Martina and Chris both ended up winning 18 Grand Slam titles but Navratilova had a slight edge in their 80-match rivalry which ended in 1988 at 43-37.

I mentioned to Martina that I thought a real breakthrough for her with the public was after the 1991 U.S. Open final which she lost to Monica Seles. The crowd just wouldn't stop clapping, finally bringing Martina to tears. It was a wonderful moment for me as a tennis fan watching on TV at home and I loved how she was being showered with affection for being a champion but for also being an honest and brave human being.

"They got me," she says. "First they liked me, then I was the big brute beating our Chrissie. Then in 1991, they just respected me and they got me. They realized I was real and said what I thought and tried to do it in the best way possible."

I commented to Martina (pictured after one of her nine Wimbledon singles wins) that she has had an enormous impact on untold numbers of gay and lesbian people who felt they would never be embraced if they did not remain in the closet or be able to make their dreams come true as an openly gay person.

I am one of them.

She seems to understand this and I'm so glad: "Probably my biggest accomplishment is changing those people on the fence. The thing I'm happiest about is the kids that didn't feel alone, who wrote me letters and said I helped give them the strength to be who they are."