/ 22 February 2006

Navratilova courts maiden success in home country

Czech-born tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who swept up almost every title, everywhere during her long illustrious career will fill a big gap in May when she competes at her first professional tournament in her home country.

Czech fans will have a chance to witness the popular, homegrown sporting star when she competes in a WTA doubles events in Prague from May 8-14 in what promises to be a moving event for both player and public.

”It will be the first time and perhaps also the last time,” she admitted at a news conference in Prague on February 16, slotted in between practice sessions, to announce her participation.

”I never played an international tournament here, apart from the Fed Cup in 1986 representing the United States. That’s it. At the time there were no international tournaments here,” she added.

Tension preceded Navratilova’s return to the then communist Czechoslovakia in 1986. She had opted to emigrate to the United States in 1975 to escape a regime which regarded tennis as a ”bourgeois sport,” but nevertheless appreciated the hard currency earnings which top players were forced to hand over.

The Prague public warmly applauded Navratilova, awarded US citizenship in 1981, at the Fed Cup final, to the great displeasure of the functionaries crowded into the well-appointed government box.

Reports about her tournament triumphs abroad had gone unreported by the official, censor-subject, media in her home country.

An emotional Navratilova picked up the microphone after the US win to declare: ”I hope that the next time I will not be forced to wait 11 years before I come back.”

”It was strange to play for the US here in Prague, in front of a public which had not been able to follow the biggest part of my career. On an emotional level it was very moving. It is difficult to explain today the fact that I was at the same time very happy and also very sad,” she explained.

Three years after that Prague appearance, the communist regime tumbled during the ”Velvet Revolution,” leaving a country in transition to capitalism that still had little pulling power for big money tennis events and their all important sponsors.

Now living in Sarasota, Florida, Navratilova returns regularly to the Czech Republic but since 1989 has only played exhibition matches.

”For the week of May 8-14, I had the option of playing in tournaments in Prague or Berlin. It was an easy choice,” she explained.

The biggest question for Navratilova is her playing partner for the $140 000 prize money Prague event.

”Recently, I have mostly played with the South African Liezel Huber, but she was injured recently. If I can not find anyone, I will ask my sister, she manages quite well as a tennis player,” Navratilova joked.

She will stay at the family home in the small, picturesque town of Revnice, around 20km from the capital for the duration of the Prague tournament.

”I am above all happy for my mother, who suffers from respiratory problems and is not able any more to take a plane to come and see me in America,” Navratilova said.

Although she will celebrate her 50th birthday in October, Navratilova still has a gruelling programme of tournaments and training.

”Currently it is Dubai, then Miami, perhaps Warsaw and, of course, Prague, Rome, Paris Eastbourne and Wimbledon,” she said, outlining the upcoming competitions.

”Mentally, I still feel in peak form, but physically it is less fun. Above all, in the morning, I need some time to get the circulation going in my legs,” she smiled.

Painful from a personal perspective, the option of emigration helped Navratilova to quickly rise to the top of the women’s game — a position which she occupied throughout the late 1970’s and almost all of the 1980’s.

Navratilova’s impressive tally of tournament trophies includes 58 Grand Slam titles, of which 18 were in singles competitions (nine Wimbledon, four US, three Australian and two Roland Garros), 31 in womens’ and nine in mixed doubles events.

At the peak of her career between January and December 1984 she won 74 consecutive matches. – Sapa-AFP