Martina Navratilova is now the most successful player in Wimbledon history.
Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, with nine of them coming on the grass of Wimbledon.
The Czech-born American also won 41 major titles in both women’s and mixed doubles.
For her compatriot, Madison Keys, winning the Australian Open for her first Grand Slam was a joyous moment, but Navratilova had mixed feelings when lifting her first major title in 1978.
Martina Navratilova reveals how the world reacted to her first Wimbledon title win
Navratilova played Chris Evert in the 1978 Wimbledon final, the player that whom she had beaten only four times in their 25 previous meetings.
However, she was able to overcome this and came from a set down to beat Evert, 2-6 6-4 7-5, to win her first Grand Slam title.
When looking back on her first Grand Slam singles victory, Navratilova spoke to Amol Rajan in an interview with the BBC.
While it was the biggest moment of her career at the time, Navratilova admitted that people did not care as much as she expected them to.
Navratilova also explained how it felt bittersweet not to be able to celebrate with her family, who were unable to celebrate with her due to the political situation in Czechoslovakia at the time.
“Well, you know, I stayed at the Inn on the park, drove myself to the courts,” said Navratilova. “And afterwards…you know the hotel sent me all the newspapers, so I’m reading all the… and it was so sweet.
“And I’m like, oh, the world’s going to come to a stop and say, ‘Wow, Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon!’ Nobody gave a s***! (laughs)
“And most of all, I couldn’t even celebrate it with my family. I mean, I found out after the match that they watched it on TV, but you know, that was very bittersweet because my dad spent thousands and thousands of hours on the court with me and then travelling to little tournaments here and there.
“And then we couldn’t share it here and there because he couldn’t get out of the country, and not only… you know? So I didn’t even know if they’d watched it, but they ended up having seen it. So it was bittersweet, but, you know, life didn’t really change that much for me.”
What Martina Navratilova said she didn’t care about after winning her last Wimbledon title
Navratilova would go on to dominate Wimbledon from this point on, winning six consecutive titles between 1982 and 1987.
Her 1987 victory meant that she had equalled Helen Wills Moody with eight Wimbledon titles, needing just one more victory to stand alone in history.
Navratilova was close to achieving this in 1988 and 1989, but on both occasions lost in the final to Steffi Graf.
However, it was in 1990 when Navratilova was able to cross that hurdle and win a historic ninth Wimbledon title.
Having lost in the final in the two years prior, Navratilova did not care how she was able to get there.
“I had prepared for Wimbledon. The event overtakes any single person,” Navratilova told media at the time. “I didn’t care if I scraped and scratched to get this. They don’t put an asterisk next to your name saying you won but didn’t play that well.”
Navratilova did not need to scrape and scratch, beating compatriot Zina Garrison, 6-4 6-1, in the final.
This was the final Grand Slam singles title that she would ever play, with Navratilova playing her last Wimbledon Centre Court match in 1994.
She would win two more mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon after 1994, before Navratilova officially retired in 2006.
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