If there’s anything in any sport that an aspiring player needs, it’s a good coach. People can buy all kinds of equipment, but with no help to hone the technique, all of it will be useless. Martina Navratilova went through a phase where she played without a coach. When Navratilova defected from the Czech Republic, she left the country and played without a coach for a long time. In a recent interview, Navratilova stated that she was missing a coach for quite some time, and that was something that Chris Evert had in the form of her father.
Martina Navratilova lacked the one thing that Chris Evert had
In an interview with the Google Zeitgeist, Navratilova opened up on many aspects of her life. She also talked about the time when she had to go six years without a coach. When Navratilova was young, her father was her tennis coach. So when she left for the United States and became an American citizen, her father was still in the Czech Republic.
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She did not get a coach after that. The eighteen-time grand slam winner lived in several cities, and it never occurred to her to get a coach. She gave the example of Chris Evert, whose father was her coach. Her father was with her whenever she came home or went to a tournament.
She said, “Cause when I left my country, my dad was my coach, basically. So from the age of 19 to 25, I didn’t have a coach. I lived around different places, but I didn’t have a coach, and it occurred to me to get a coach. Chris Evert, her father was a coach; she lived in Fort Lauderdale, so when she came home, her dad would help her out.”
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The Czech-American tennis legend had no way of contacting her father, so she was left on her own. “I couldn’t go back to the Czech Republic. I couldn’t really even talk to my dad on the phone. That was complicated back then.”
When did Navratilova get a coach?
However, Navratilova did get a coach. Although she had difficulty finding a coach at first, she started training under Dr. Renee Richards. In the same segment of the exclusive interview, she said that she started making records when she started training with the coach.
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Watch this story – Martina Navratilova’s Wife Julia Lemigova Throws Some Serious Shade at Larsa Pippen for Relentlessly Insulting Her Best Friend – ‘She Attacked..’
It turned out well not only for her but also for the WTA. Navratilova smashed all the records and still has the record for the most Grand Slam titles, with an incredible 59 titles under her name.
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