‘They Were All Invited…’ – Martina Navratilova Gives It Back to a Fan Over Billie Jean King Not Mentioning Serena Williams in Her Speech at Wimbledon Championships 2022

Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King ruled the women’s tour for more than a decade. Being two of the top players in the game, the former World No. 1s were arch-rivals on the court. However, the rivalry didn’t seem to leave traces of negative feelings off the court between the two legends. The two still share a strong friendship between them.

The proof of it was seen yesterday when Navratilova came out in support of King on social media. The former Czech-American player gave it back to a fan who criticized King for only mentioning Navratilova in her speech at the Centenary celebration of the Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Martina Navratilova guards Billie Jean King from unfair fan criticism

Yesterday, Wimbledon celebrated the centenary of the Centre Court. The celebration featured all the players who have won Wimbledon once or more in their careers. During the celebrations, King, a 6-time Wimbledon singles champion, came forward to grace the occasion with her words.

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During her speech, she gave a special shout-out to Martina Navratilova. The Czech-American player, a winner of 9 singles, 7 women’s doubles, and 4 mixed doubles Wimbledon titles also had to take a part in the celebrations. However, contracting COVID-19 at the last moment stopped her from heading to Wimbledon.

While the shout-out received love from fans around the globe, some had a different point of view. Apart from Navratilova, players like Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, and Jimmy Connors also didn’t attend the event. Disturbed by the fact that King just mentioned Navratilova and not others in her speech, a fan wrote, “No shoutout for Serena, Steffi, or Connors? If you s/o one in absentia on the women’s side, you should s/o the rest. It’s only fair.”

Learning about the fan’s Tweet, Navratilova took no time to come to the rescue of her friend. Replying to the fan’s Tweet, Navratilova wrote, “They were all invited and could have come and chose not to do so. I had no choice…”

Being a renowned entity, Martina’s Tweet in no time had fans commenting on it. While some agreed with her views, others countered it with their own views.

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Apart from the Centenary celebrations, the 2022 Championships headed to it’s the second week. With the competition getting tougher, entering the second week on the men’s side are top seeds like Djokovic, Nadal, and Sinner, among others. On the women’s side, only Ons Jabeur and Paula Badosa have managed to enter the second week from the Top 10.