Top 5 most intense individual rivalries in the history of professional sports

#3 Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova (Tennis)

Martina Navratilova (R) defeats Chris Evert (L) in the French Open final

Before Steffi Graf and Serena Williams ever dreamed of achieving the heights they did in women's tennis, there was a certain pair of female tennis players who paved the way for the successes and spotlight enjoyed by the current roster.

Chris Evert is the senior of the two and captured global attention first - winning her first of 18 Grand Slams in 1974 and went on to win at least one every year for the next 13 years (which remains a record till this day).

Furthermore, she achieved the record breaking feat of getting to 34 Grand Slam finals and never lost in the first or second round of a Grand Slam for the entirety of her professional career.

Incredibly, Evert made it to the semifinals or better in 34 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments between 1974 and 1983, while her career winning percentage of 89.97% remains a record for either men or women in the Open era.

To state that Evert totally dominated the female Tennis scene in the mid to late 1970s would be merely stating the obvious, but towards the end of that decade, a new threat to her dominance emerged in the form of Martina Navratilova.

The Czech-American totally revamped the women's game, winning a total of 18 Grand Slams and setting a number of other records along the way.

She broke Chris Evert's previous record of 55 consecutive wins in the Open Era for a total of 74, while also setting a record for most singles (167) and doubles (177) title wins in the Open Era.

Her record of being number one for five consecutive years (1982 - 1986) remains till this day and she also holds the best season win-loss record in the open era, 86-1 (98.9%) achieved in 1983.

Navritova set a then-record of reaching 11 consecutive Grand Slam finals (since surpassed by Stefi Graf's 13), while she is also the only Tennis player (male or female) to have won eight different tournaments at least seven times and was ranked in the top ten in singles for 20 consecutive years between 1975 and 1994 (with 19 years spent in the top five, 15 in the top three and seven as the number one ranked singles player).

Given that Chris Evert and Martina Navritova both hit their peak at the top of the game in and around the same time makes it a no-brainer that the pair would be regular fixtures for the biggest Tennis titles during their day and the two women did see a lot of each other.

The two women faced themselves a total of 80 times during their career, with 14 of those clashes coming in Grand Slam finals, with Navritova winning 10, while also holding the advantage in their overall head-to-head with 43 victories to Evert's 37.

The rivalry lasted for approximately 15 years from 1973 till 1988 and their intense battles undoubtedly shed the light for future legends like the Williams sisters, Stefi Graf and Maria Sharapova to shine through.