‘Can You Believe That Guy Over There?’ – When Martina Navratilova Revealed the Hilarious Banter She Used to Have With Her Legendary American Doubles Partner

18-time Grand Slam singles winner Martina Navratilova was also a great doubles player. Especially her net game won her many doubles tournaments in the past. Also, some of the notable doubles partners she had were champions themselves, like Chris Evert, Pam Shriver, and many more.

During the 80s, Navratilova played mostly with Shriver, the legendary American player. In an interview with Tyler Cowen, Martina Navratilova talked about her relationship with Shriver, despite them not talking much off the court.

Martina Navratilova talked about having a hilarious banter with Pam Shriver

In that interview, Cowen revealed that Shriver mentioned having a creative conversation with Navratilova during their doubles matches. In reply, the 18-time Grand Slam champion said, “We talked a lot, yes. We had to catch up on everything while we were playing the matches.“

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Also, Navratilova compared the conversation between today’s generation and her generation. “Nowadays, they all talk strategy. We’d do like, “OK, I serve wide, but what do you want to do for dinner?” or “Where did you go last night?” and “Where is your coach sitting?” We were visiting. “Can you believe that guy over there? You know, he’s not even watching us.” We were just talking smack, and we had fun,” Navratilova further said. 

Notably, Navratilova and Shrivers had a fantastic time during the 80s, as they won 109 consecutive doubles matches on the tour. During that winning span, they also won 8 back-to-back Grand Slam doubles titles. However, Shriver never won a Grand Slam singles title in her career; whereas Navratilova won 18.

Navratilova had a legendary career

Along with 18 Grand Slam singles titles, Navratilova also won 41 doubles and mixed doubles titles in her career; in total, she won 59 Majors. Interestingly, Navratilova retired from the singles competition in 1994. However, she came back in the late 90s and played doubles till 2006.

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Before her eventual retirement from all forms of tennis, Navratilova surprised everyone as she won the US Open mixed doubles title in 2006, just before her 50th birthday.

Despite her longevity, Navratilova did not have a great start to her professional career, as she only won her first Grand Slam title three years after making her professional debut in 1975. Before that, she had to leave her country (Czechoslovakia) and had to get political asylum in the United States. Still, she had one of the greatest tennis careers of all time owing to her grit and determination to play tennis at the highest level.

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