After 50 Years of Rivalry and Friendship, Martina Navratilova Reveals Captivating Fan Girl Moment With Chris Evert – ‘When I First Met..’

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were familiar with one another as players on the tennis circuit even before they competed against one another. And, recently, they shared one of the early meeting stories outside the tennis court. Explaining how the 59-time Grand Slam champion shared a fan girl moment with her arch-rival, Evert. Both the tennis legends had different tennis beginnings. One of them moved to the US to make a name for herself, while the other was already dominating the Florida courts and was well known in the tennis world at a very young age.

Martina Navratilova shared a fangirl moment with Chris Evert

On the occasion of the WTA’s 50th anniversary, Tennis Channel, a well-known tennis media outlet, recently featured a series on the WTA legends. An entire chapter in that series is devoted to the legends, Evert and Navratilova. It describes how each one advanced to the top, from their early days competing on the WTA circuit until the time they both competed for the biggest titles.

In that video, the 66-year-old former tennis legend revealed the time when she met her archrival for the first time during their initial tennis days. She recalled her excitement after getting to know that the popular junior tennis player at that time, Evert, knew who she was. She recalled, “When I first met Chris, she said hello to me. I was so excited. Fort Lauderdale, 1973: I walked by, and she said hi. I’m like, Oh, Chris knows who I am.” 

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Further, the 18-time Grand Slam champion also revealed that she liked to keep a good watch on her rivals. Evert said, “With all due respect, most of the opponents that I played I had a winning record against, so I think that with Martina, it was a different story.” 

However, there was a time when the 59-time Grand Slam champion revealed her grandmother’s weird reaction to meeting her granddaughter’s rival in the US.

When Navratilova’s grandmother met Evert 

In her autobiography, Navratilova recalled the moment when her grandmother arrived in the US for the first time. And straight away she took her grandmother to meet the ‘Ice Maiden’, who was also a good friend to her at that time.

WATCH THIS STORY – Chris Evert Looks Back at Her Astounding Rivalry With Martina Navratilova and the Negative Impact of Her 13-Match Losing Streak

Upon meeting Evert for the first time with big eyes, her grandmother asked in Czech, “You’re the Chris Evert?” Well, she must have already heard a lot about the 18-time Grand Slam champion from her granddaughter. The two tennis greats are quite at ease talking about their personal perspectives on how they used to view one another and how, over time, they became good friends.