Taylor Townsend: Martina Navratilova and the Williams Sisters

The stars of our sport shared stories about their heroes, both in life and on the court, and how these idols shaped who they are today. For more "My Hero" submissions, click here.

I would have to say, for my game, Martina Navratilova. She's very inspirational. She's a lefty like me, and after watching some of the documentaries and getting a chance to know her, some of the things she had to overcome were amazing.

Serena and Venus Williams are also two of the people I looked up to my whole life, just because they broke down a lot of barriers for African-American females, and broke a lot of records. They've been trailblazers, along with Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. Particularly for women they were trailblazers, and they've been inspirational to me my whole career.

If you want to pursue being a professional tennis player, you have to know the history of your game. One thing Billie Jean King always stresses is that the more you know about history, the more you know about yourself. It's important for us to understand the past players, and who came before us, what they did and how we got to where we are. If it wasn't for Billie and the others, we wouldn't have a WTA tour. That's why I'm inspired by those people, because it's not just the people who you see on TV now; it's trailblazers before that.