"I made bigger headlines when I lost a match than when I won Wimbledon or US Open": When Martina Navratilova opened up about her 'cool' dominant phase

Martina Navratilova once opened up about her "cool" dominant phase in the mid-1980s, where she made bigger headlines when she lost than when she won Grand Slam titles. The American tennis icon won 15 of her 18 singles Grand Slam titles from 1981 to 1987.

Speaking to the official Roland Garros website in 2024, Navratilova discussed her and Chris Evert's exceptional reign at the top in the 1980s. They traded the World No. 1 ranking multiple times between each other as they kept winning the big titles.

However, from 1982 to 1985, Navratilova was unbeatable for Evert. In their head-to-head record, Evert led 30-18 after the Australian Open final in 1982, but straight after that, Navratilova went on a 13-match unbeaten streak to lead the record 31-30 after the US Open final in 1984.

Speaking about her extraordinary run when she won six out of the eight Majors in 1983 and 1984, Navratilova recalled:

“I made bigger headlines when I lost a match than when I won Wimbledon or the US Open... It was a pretty cool feeling, because you almost forget how to lose in a way. There were some matches that I should have lost, but you just kind of played by memory, and you don't believe that you can lose and because of that you don't."

"And then the other player knows they have to play something special, and most of them couldn't do it. It was a pretty cool feeling," Martina Navratilova added.

Evert and Navratilova's rivalry was iconic and is still talked about in recent times, however, Navratilova thinks such rivalries have become uncommon over the years.

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When Martina Navratilova recalled iconic Chris Evert rivalry while expressing concern over lack of it in women’s tennis now

Chris Evert (L) Martina Navratilova (R) at the French Open 2024 - Source: Getty

During an interview with The Guardian in 2022, Martina Navratilova fondly looked back at her rivalry against Chris Evert.

"Chris [Evert] and I, that’s a rivalry for the ages in terms of longevity," she said.

However, she also expressed worries that great rivalries have not been a part of women's tennis in the past 10 years.

"The women fluctuate a lot more with their ability... And that means you don’t get the rivalry because they don’t play one another enough at the top of the game, and you need that. In tennis, you are only as good as the ball you are hitting – you can’t hit great shots unless you are forced to hit great shots, so you need those rivalries," she said.

Navratilova and Evert played against each other 80 times over their careers, with Navratilova leading their head-to-head record 43-37. They also faced each other in 60 finals, out of which 14 were Grand Slam events. They ended up winning 18 singles Grand Slam titles each in their careers.