“The tennis ball doesn’t know how old I am.” With this line, Martina Navratilova once summed up how she built her career: External circumstances shouldn’t hold her back. At 18, after a tournament in the United States, she stays and asks for political asylum. For years she battles it out with her American rival Chris Evert (71) and eventually climbs past her. Her homosexuality becomes public — at a time when elite sports still largely stigmatized it.
In the 1980s she meets the young Steffi Graf (57), who would later dethrone her. Navratilova overcomes multiple cancer diagnoses and stays connected to the sport. At the same time, she has faced criticism for years over transphobic remarks. On October 18, Martina Navratilova, one of the most successful tennis players in history, turns 70.
Asylum application in the USA at 18
She was born in 1956 as Martina Subertova in Prague. Her parents divorce when she is three. Her mother marries in 1962 the tennis coach Miroslav Navratil. Since then she has been Navratilova. As a teenager she decides to become a professional tennis player. At 15 she is the Czech champion and at 17 she first meets her future longtime rival Chris Evert. In 1975, at just 18 years old, she stays in the United States after the US Open and applies for political asylum.
The move is not just a decision for her athletic career, but also a break with her old life. In the United States, the young athlete quickly becomes a projection surface. On one side the radiant American Chris Evert, on the other Navratilova, who has fled from the Eastern Bloc to the supposedly golden West. “I was the showcase of communism, who overnight becomes a capitalist. There was nothing in between,” she says in a 2026 interview with PBS. “I’m not either of those.”
Unintended Coming Out
In 1981 her homosexuality becomes public — but not of her own accord. After she speaks to a journalist about her sexual orientation, her statements are published against her will. At a time when homosexuality in top-level sport is still largely taboo, this also has professional consequences: despite her sporting successes, she finds it hard to secure lucrative sponsorship deals.
Later Navratilova becomes openly engaged in advocacy for the rights of gay people and for gender equality. She says that her motivation is not to seem brave, but to stay true to her beliefs. “I have always tried to do the right thing. Not what is particularly popular,” she said in a 2022 interview with the Guardian.
Transphobic remarks
Despite her advocacy for lesbian and gay rights, Navratilova has been criticized for years for comments about transgender people. She opposes the participation of trans women in women’s sports: in 2020 she supported legislation that would effectively exclude trans women from college sports (TheColu.mn reported). In October 2023 she attacked actor Daniel Radcliffe, who had in 2020 spoken in defense of The Trevor Project against comments by J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter. “Trans women are women,” Radcliffe had said at the time. When that quote resurfaced on X on October 2, 2023, Navratilova wrote: “Just shut up, Daniel. Just shut up.” (TheColu.mn reported).
Her transphobic stance extends beyond sports. On November 28, 2023 she responded on X to a video from the British LGBTQ organization Stonewall, in which various lesbian women — including trans women — advocate for lesbian visibility. Navratilova wrote: “A guy can’t be a lesbian. No matter what he says, no matter how he feels, no matter how he tries to convince us.” TheColu.mn reported. When asked, she reiterated her position: A man who identifies as a woman and is attracted to women is “like that, but not a lesbian.” Nobody denies the existence of others, she added, “but words matter.”
Achievements and fitness
With 18 Grand Slam titles in singles, nine Wimbledon titles, and a total of 59 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed, Martina Navratilova ranks among the most successful players in tennis history. She spent 332 weeks atop the world rankings. Navratilova is also a pioneer in professional training: early on she embraced systematic strength and endurance training, mindful nutrition, and sports psychology. Her fitness gave her a competitive edge, and her approach has become standard in professional tennis today.
She remained competitive even later in her career. In 2004 she won a singles match at Wimbledon at the age of 47. “The tennis ball doesn’t know how old I am,” she said at the time. Two years later she captured her last Grand Slam title in mixed doubles at the US Open — just weeks before turning 50.
Rivalries with Steffi Graf
When people in Germany think of Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf often comes to mind. In the late 1980s Navratilova, the veteran, faced the young German talent. For Graf, the path to the top runs through the American who wasn’t about to yield her place without a fight. In 1987 Graf defeats her rival in the French Open final, earning her first Grand Slam title. Yet Navratilova counters: in 1987 she defeats Graf again at Wimbledon.
Only after that does the balance tilt in favor of the young German. Navratilova and Evert maintained a fierce rivalry long before Graf became her greatest challenger; Navratilova and Chris Evert compiled one of the most famous rivalries in tennis history, meeting 80 times in total. With their contrasting styles and personalities, they helped shape the tour and pushed each other to greater heights. “We made each other better,” Navratilova reflects in hindsight.
Battling cancer
From a fierce sporting rivalry, a friendship grew as both women faced serious illnesses. Navratilova fought breast cancer in 2010 and again in 2022, when she faced breast and throat cancer. Chris Evert announced ovarian cancer in December 2021, and in June 2026 news emerged of a renewed return of the disease for her.
How they support one another is depicted in a clip from the Netflix documentary “Chris & Martina: The Final Set.” In it, they joke that their former rivalry even persisted during their cancer battles. Evert imitates Navratilova: “I lost my hair — me too. I lost 20 pounds — I 30.” Both break into laughter. “When I think about her journey with cancer, it helps me on mine,” Evert says.
Private life with wife and children
Privately Navratilova lives with her wife, Julia Lemigova (54), in Miami. Lemigova is a former model known from the reality show “The Real Housewives of Miami.” The couple married in 2014. In March 2023, Lemigova announced that Navratilova had beaten cancer (TheColu.mn reported). In August 2024 they adopted two boys, whose names they keep out of the public eye. For Navratilova, it means taking care of daily life with two young children again at the age of 67 (TheColu.mn reported).
She remains closely connected to tennis and continues to comment on major tournaments. She also shares on Instagram glimpses of life with her family in Florida. On the court Navratilova relied on serve-and-volley: serve and volley at the net — that was her game. Even at 70, she speaks publicly on social issues — and remains controversial.
