For the first time, there was a Ladies Invitation Doubles tournament at Wimbledon this year. And the premiere winners of the event are Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna, who, today, defeated Tracy Austin and Kathy Rinaldi-Stunkel 7-5, 6-0.During their careers, Navratilova won the Wimbledon doubles championship seven times, and Novotna won it four times. Combining doubles, singles and mixed doubles, this makes a total of six Wimbledon trophies for Novotna, and twenty for Navratilova.
Can you believe it's been seventeen years since Novotna had her moment with the Duchess of Kent? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteShe sure doesn't look like she's been off the tour for a decade, either.
No, she doesn't. I miss Jana. Just today, Tennis Channel showed a 1998 Fed Cup match between her and Hingis--good stuff.
ReplyDeleteDiane I was just about to post that. I watched that Fed Cup match with Hingis and Novotna and one thing stood out to me. Even at 16 years old, Hingis was indeed a tennis prodigy.
ReplyDeleteI came to tennis very late - not until about late 90s and so I kind of missed the Hingis era. In Jamaica where I am from the only tournament you saw on the one television station was Wimbledon and sometimes the US Open. Every year we saw Evert, Navrtilova, Borg, McEnroe. There was never really anyone that young people like me could identify with.
The in 1997 I finally saw someone who looked like me and whose story I could identify. Her name is Venus. And from that day on until today she remains for me the reason why I watch this sport. I live and die by Venus.
In recent times when I hear people talk about Hingis I go to youtube (is that the best thing ever for tennis fans?) and watched many of her matches. When I got Tennis Channel and was able to see classic matches that people spoke about I have finally begun to appreciate Hingis.
She may not have had the power of a Venus but man was she adept around the court. It was also the first time yesterday that I actually saw Novotna play and I can see why she was a bit of a headcase. Lovely game though.
Any match with Martina and Jana was a good match. In her prime, Hingis was the cleverest player on the tour, and a joy to watch. I never get tired of watching either of those women.
ReplyDelete