Martina Navratilova reacts to $425,000,000,000-worth Elon Musk's bizarre COVID-19 bet with Sam Harris coming to light

Martina Navratilova is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, having reshaped the game of women's singles throughout her career. Since retiring in 2006, the American has continued to stay in the spotlight. She recently reacted to the news of a bizarre wager between Elon Musk and New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris.

Musk, who is valued at $450 billion (as per Celebrity Net Worth), has been an outspoken critic of Harris in recent years, despite the two previously having been cordial friends. He even called the author "mentally ill" in one of his posts on X.

On Wednesday, January 15, Harris wrote an extensive piece on the Substack app regarding his fallout with the X CEO. He explained that the two had been close before the COVID-19 pandemic when Musk’s views on the virus caused a rift between them.

An X user shared a screenshot of one part of Harris’ piece of Substack, highlighting a bet the author had made with Musk in 2020.

“Elon and I didn't converge on a common view of epidemiology over the course of those two hours, but we hit upon a fun compromise: A wager. Elon bet me $1 million dollars (to be given to charity) against a bottle of fancy tequila ($1000) that we wouldn't see as many as 35,000 cases of Covid in the United States (cases, not deaths). The terms of the bet reflected what was, in his estimation, the near certainty (1000 to 1) that he was right,” Harris wrote.

Reacting to this, Martina Navratilova wrote on X:

“Hmm. Not surprised at all.”

Martina Navratilova blasts Elon Musk’s handling of X

Martina Navratilova at the Laureus World Sports Awards Madrid 2024 (Image Source: Getty)

Over the years, Martina Navratilova has been vocal about her opinions on Elon Musk. After the tech billionaire took over X, then Twitter, the tennis legend lashed out at his handling of the platform.

Taking to X, the American bemoaned the loss of her direct mentions, writing:

“All my direct mentions just disappeared again right in front of my eyes. This never happened until Musk took over. It happens all the time now at irregular intervals. No clue why. And clearly Elon doesn’t care to fix it, right @elonmusk?”

Martina Navratilova is largely considered to be one of the game changers of the women's singles discipline in tennis. Her three-decade-long career saw her win 18 major singles titles while retaining the rank of World No.1 for 332 weeks.

The American called time on her career in 2006 but has been active on social media over the years, highlighting and speaking out about issues she cares about.