I actually don’t quite remember whether I was really all that interested in tennis back in the eighties? Still, I knew very well who Martina Navratilova was: And she was good!
Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975 when she played the US Open as a more than averagely talented 18-year-old. Based in America and after a period of maturation, she rose to the absolute top of the tennis hierarchy, winning Wimbledon no less than nine times (!) and becoming one of the most winning tennis players ever. She also contested countless fine duels with Chris Evert who I at the time found had the best legs. But Navratilova had the best cars.
It’s probably less well known that she was a big car enthusiast too. As a Czech, of course she learnt to drive in a Skoda, but immediately after defecting she bought her first proper car, a Mercedes-Benz 450 SL. Since then she really went from strength to strength, and she has owned, among others, Toyota Supra, BMW 733, Rolls-Royce and various Porsches.
Back in the eighties, women’s tennis gradually gained in prestige and the prize money naturally followed suit. Quite often a car was distributed to the winner – which, however, could often be exchanged for money if the winner preferred cash. Martina Navratilova reportedly never did: She always took the car, and believes she has won at least eight Porsches.
The German brand had probably figured out that their core customers quite liked tennis, so they not only sponsored a tournament, but also used Navratilova as a spokeswoman. She did it quite sincerely as well, because while she liked cars in general, she really liked Porsche. Frankly, they also fit rather well together: Porsche built some of the world’s best sports cars; Navratilova played some of the world’s best women’s tennis.
My most memorable final victory was against Chris Evert in 1988. Perhaps I played my best tennis then. I still remember that afterwards, I raced along the autobahn in my winner’s car and the speedometer showed 285 kilometres an hour.
Martina Navratilova
And then she went and beat Ivan Lendl.
What?!? It was probably regarded as common knowledge among tennis connoisseurs, that even number dead last on the men’s rankings could beat number one on the women’s rankings – or something like that… I’m sure such ideas were based purely on simple physical reasoning. And Ivan Lendl, who by the way was also Czech and therefore probably also learnt to drive in a Skoda, was just as dominant in the men’s rankings as Navratilova was in the women’s, so this feat should have been entirely impossible.
But Martina beat him! Perhaps she had the psychological advantage: While Ivan Lendl had to settle for a 944, Navratilova led the way in both 911 and 928, Porsche’s top models. That’s how to do it. She also has better legs, mind.
