Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova shared many a stage throughout their friendly, yet highly documented rivalry, and this week they shared yet an additional moment in the spotlight with another woman who ranks high on the power index, Oprah Winfrey.
The two former World No. 1s appeared on the media mogul’s highly-syndicated talk show on Tuesday to share their most memorable anecdotes with the Queen of Talk.
Theirs was not a Tonya versus Nancy rivalry, but a friendly one, a camaraderie that was based on mutual admiration. While the friendship was put on hold during championship finals, the respect the two felt for one another was not forgotten when the ball was put in play.
In 1986, Evert accompanied Navratilova to Czechoslovakia for a Fed Cup final, Navratilova’s first trip back to her homeland in 11 years. The two women who had played for titles against one another then found themselves on the same team. Martina reciprocated the gesture six months later, when she invited Evert, then in the process of divorcing her first husband, British tennis pro John Lloyd, to her Aspen home for a getaway. In the process, Evert met her future husband, American skier Andy Mill.
Given that, it is not surprising to hear the answer they gave when asked about what would happen after a “cut-throat match.”
“After the final, we’d walk into the locker room and either I’d be crying and her arm would be around me or she’d be crying and my arm would be around her, and we never lost that respect and caring,” Evert told Oprah before Navratilova added, “What we have we will never have with anybody else.”
Evert responded by locking arms with her former foe.
More different they could not be. The right-hander, Evert, a consummate baseliner and all-American girl whose game was suited to clay, and the iron-nerved defector in Navratilova and her serve and volley tactics, which saw the lefty to nine consecutive Wimbledon finals.
But they shared a few things in common, namely 18 Grand Slam titles and a place in history. Of course, a friendship and a mutual respect put them in a league no record book could register.
Navratilova and Evert played 80 times in all throughout their illustrious careers, with Navratilova leading the head-to-head 43-37.