‘Republicans and Democrats Could Learn..’ – When Martina Navratilova Showed How to Achieve Tennis Glory Despite Differing Ideologies With an American Doubles Legend

Former Czech-American tennis player Martina Navratilova has a fantastic record in doubles, as her net play was one of the best. Over the years, the former player had many doubles partners, including some legendary names like Chris Evert and Pam Shriver.

In the 80s, Shriver was Navratilova’s doubles partner in various Grand Slam tournaments. Interestingly, the pair of Navratilova and Shriver had attracted many political views, as the American tennis star was a republican, compared to Navratilova.

Martina Navratilova talked about the political angle of pairing with Pam Shriver

In 1994, the 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova opened up about playing with Pam Shriver, who was a Republican. Speaking about their unusual pairing, Navratilova said, “Pam played the right side and I played the left side. But it seemed that (one of us) always played the middle. The Republicans and Democrats could learn from that.“

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Interestingly, Shriver and Navratilova won 8 Grand Slam doubles titles together. Also, they won a record 109 back-to-back doubles matches on the tour. However, Shriver never won a Grand Slam singles title in her career.

Navratilova retired from singles in 1994

In 1994, Navratilova suddenly decided to take a break from tennis. At that time, many thought that the legendary tennis player was retiring from professional tennis. However, she talked about taking a break from tennis and doing other things in life.

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At that time, Navratilova joked about doing helicopter skiing after her retirement. Speaking about her retirement, she did not feel like her heart was in tennis. However, Navratilova later returned to tennis in the late 90s, but 1994 was the last time she played in a singles tournament.

Before retiring from singles, Navratilova bagged 18 Grand Slam singles titles. Moreover, she won 167 singles tournaments throughout her career, which is still a record.