TennisToday

Martina Navratilova Set to Goofy-Foot on Season 14 of Dancing With the Stars

Inspired casting would have had Chris Evert on the show as well.

You know - one more H2H in their unmatched (in all sports) rivalry.

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A little something about the legend that is Martina Navratilova:

Born in Czechoslovakia. Defected to the US in 1975. Out and proud lesbian.

She won 167 singles titles & 177 in doubles - both records for men & women.

In Grand Slam play she ranks 3rd (w Evert) with 18: 3 AO, 2 RG, 9 W, 4 US.

In doubles she won 31 Slams (most with Pam Shriver) & 10 in mixed doubles.

Her 1st & last Slams were both mixed titles: '74 RG & '06 USO.

And in that that span of 32 years she won a grand total of 59 Slam titles.

A perfect set: Martina owns a title in singles, duds & mixed at all 4 Slams.

The Hall of Famer held the year-end #1 ranking 7 times.

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For Dancing With the Stars Martina is partnered with Tony Dovolani.

In 12 seasons he has made the finals once: 3rd with Melissa Rycroft.

Oops: The last tennis player to dance was Monica Seles. A 1st round loss.

Best of luck Martina. Those bitchy judges better be nice to you.

For International Woman's Day: Martina Navratilova Advocate Magazine Cover Story

What better way to celebrate International Woman's Day than with a real hero of the gender: Martina Navratilova. Andrew Harmon writes a wonderful article for The Advocate. If you have a few minutes why not give it a read - HERE. Further, have you ever seen a better photo of Martina?

An excerpt: "Goodbye 2010," she wrote on her website as the year drew to a close. "If you were a fish, I'd throw you back."

But talking with her today, it seems almost as though the last straw came when the 54-year-old Navratilova was in a hospital bed in Nairobi, Kenya, watching CNN. "They were showing a five-minute segment on World Sport, about Martina Navratilova and the climb, they talked about what happened, and it was very accurate, and I was like, Oh, that was nice," she says.

"Then on the ticker underneath it says, 'Martina Navratilova Quits Her Mount Kilimanjaro Attempt,'" she continues with a wry smile. The emphasis is hers. It's clearly an unpalatable word, even though she relates this story with a heady dose of humor threaded through the exasperation. "I can say that I quit, but nobody else can say that I quit! Because the only option of not quitting was to go up and die. So it was not a good solution. Quitting suggests that you had a choice. I did not have a choice."

Shouldn't he be in the hospital? Just sayin'...

File this under: things you won't see at Melbourne Park.

So I'm watching the Tennis Channel's series of Aussie Open finals.

Tonight is the Chris Evert/Martina Navratilova final from 1981.

And there is a dude in a hospital bed - On. The. Court.

I don't mean to be insensitive to the infirmed, but that's effin' hilarious.

Photos: My tv!

Elton John Lobs a Winner Over Steffi Graf & Andre Agassi

Let's hear it for the old boy!

 

He pulled this off last night at Billie Jean King's WTT Smash Hits AIDS event.

Hey, and is that Jan-Michael Gambill he high-fives at the end of the video?

DVR ALERT: ESPN's 30 for 30 'Unmatched' Airs Tonight

Just when you thought the tennis was over for now...

This film documents the Chris Evert/Martina Navratilova rivalry.

Nothing in individual sport touches this rivalry as they played 80 times.

Not to be missed. Here is a little peak:

 

Martina Navratilova's Opens Up about Her Breast Cancer in an Interview with CNN

Martina is a fighter. And she is out there raising awareness for DCIS.

She has successfully finished treatment and says, "That's been the hardest thing about the breast cancer is talking about it so much now... Every interview I do I talk about it. But again, it's a small preice to pay to encourage women to take care of themselves and get those check-ups and hopefully nip-it-in-the-bud if there is a problem."

DVR Alert - - -> MARTINA: My Toughest Opponent

This CNN special feature will air beginning Aug 7. Not to be missed.

From CNN's press release: In 'Martina: My Toughest Opponent' CNN chronicles Martina’s journey of balancing treatments, tennis, and everything in between. Narrated by CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, this half-hour special gives viewers an intimate look at Martina’s personal battle with breast cancer.

Here is a preview:

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Serena Williams & Roger Federer's Calendar Slam Dreams End at Roland Garros

They've been oh-so close before.

Here is an interesting chart of near-miss Grand Slammers.

It only charts the Open era - there are so many more.

That Navratilova listing of 1984 is misleading...

Back then the Australian Open was played as the 4th Slam in Dec.

She was actually going for the Grand Slam.

She lost a 3 set semi to Helena Sukova - after she was winning.

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Serena did win 4 consecutive Slams - '02: RG, W, US - '03: AO.

Martina won 6 consecutive - '83: W, US, AO - '84: RG, W, US.

Martina Navratilova: Health & Career Update

MARTINA IS CANCER FREE!!!

She told Tennis Channel: "I'm doing well. I just started radiation last week."

She is planning to play 'legends doubles' with Jana Novotna at Roland Garros.

Where she will continue her great work commentating for Tennis Channel.

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Roland Garros is where Martina won her first two Grand Slam titles:

In 1974 she teamed with Ivan Molina to win the mixed doubles.

And in 1975 she and future rival Chris Evert won the ladies doubles.

Martina was a 6-times singles finalist - winning only twice: '82 & '84.

She won 7 ladies doubles titles - 4 with long-time partner Pam Shriver.

In all she won 11 titles at Roland Garros: 2 singles, 7 doubles & 2 mixed.

Photo: Reuters

Svetlana Kuznetsova gives her Support to Martina Navratilova

This, from Sveta's Twitter page: Just read about Martina N! OMG! So bad news! but i know she is very taff and she ll make it thrue! LETS SUPPORT HER GUYS!

Martina announced yesterday that she was diagnosed in February with a non-invasive form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. They caught it before it had spread to her breast tissue.

On Good Morning America she stated that it had been 4 years between mammograms and that she was lucky that the DCIS had formed later in those 4 years otherwise the diagnosis would have been much worse.

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Ladies, please get your mammograms.

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At 17 Sveta partnered with a 46 year-old Martina and they made for a formidable doubles team in 2003. They played 15 tournaments together - winning 5 including their biggest titles in Rome and Toronto. They were also the losing finalists at the US Open - the year before Sveta would go on to win the singles title.

Photo: Taken yesterday for People online.

Tennis Legend Martina Navratilova has Breast Cancer

This requires my stock response: FUCK CANCER.

Serena Williams Wins the Australian Open

It wasn't pretty but she got 'er done.

These photos could almost be part of RuPaul's Drag Race promotion.

Last night in Melbourne Serena Williams won her 5th Australian Open title beating Justine Henin, 64 36 62. It was a very sloppy match. In fact, one might argue that Serena got lucky cuz just a couple points going Justine's way in the first set and the Belgian is a straight-sets winner.

Justine will have nightmares about all those missed break points - she was only 5 of 16 and so many of those were in the first set...

So now Serena has 12 Slam titles (5 Aussie, 3 Wimby, 3 USO, 1 French) and ties legend Billie Jean King in 5th place on the Slam leader list. She is 6 behind the co-4th placers Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert with 18. She has a long way to go to catch Margaret Court's record of 24.

Well done Serena. Just don't expect to see her again until the tour swings into Miami in late March. (Please prove me wrong.)

Photos: Reuters

Tennis Channel Classics on Tonight: Chris vs Martina

'81 Aussie final. Martina won 67 64 75. Yea, that's my TV. Please don't sue me.

I absolutely love when the Tennis Channel plays these super old classic matches the week before a Slam. I was watching the match tonight featuring Chris Evert (still Lloyd then) and Martina Navratilova and tripped out on that car parked right on center court! And it was just a Toyota.