{"id":16774,"date":"2025-04-13T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T14:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16774\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T14:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T14:52:09","slug":"the-wta-champion-who-martina-navratilova-wishes-she-had-the-chance-to-play-at-wimbledon-but-never-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16774\/","title":{"rendered":"The WTA champion who Martina Navratilova wishes she had the chance to play at Wimbledon but never did"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martina Navratilova played many different opponents in her 23 appearances at the Wimbledon Championships.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Navratilova<\/a> won 18 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, with half of those coming at the Wimbledon Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of her nine victories at SW19, five of them came in a final where Navratilova beat greatest rival Chris Evert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Evert<\/a> and Navratilova had many battles over the years, but there was another legendary player that she wishes should could have played on the Wimbledon grass.<\/p>\n

\"JulJul 1990: Martina Navratilova of the USA holds up the winners” plate after winning the Wimbledon Championships played at Wimbledon, London, England. Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK \/AllsportThe WTA champion Martina Navratilova wishes she had played at Wimbledon<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2018 Wimbledon women\u2019s singles final between Serena Williams<\/a> and Angelique Kerber, which the latter won, Navratilova spoke about the one player that she wishes she could have played at The Championships.<\/p>\n

Writing in her London Evening Standard Column<\/a>, Navratilova declared that her dream match would be to play Williams at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Navratilova even went onto explain what her tactics would have been to beat Williams, as she suggested that she would back herself to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could pick to play any one single player from another generation it would be Serena Williams at Wimbledon, no question,\u201d said Navratillova.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been the dream match for me to test my serve and volley against her power game, although it would never have been enough to just serve and volley as she loves a target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only answer is to try to mix it up, but the power she possesses is something to contend with. For me, it would have been an interesting match-up and the competitor in me would have fancied my chances!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto credit should read KENZO TRIBOUILLARD\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

There was one Wimbledon singles tournament that both Navratilova and Williams were part of in 2004, but both players would have had to reach the final to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Williams did managed to do just that, while 47-year-old Navratilova lost in the second round to Gisela Dulko in her final ever singles match at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

While they never played each other on a singles court, Navratilova and Williams did go head-to-head at the Wimbledon doubles tournament in 2000.<\/p>\n

In this quarter-final match, Serena partnered sister Venus Williams<\/a> to beat Navratilova and Mariaan de Swardt, 4-6 6-2 6-1, en route to winning the title.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto credit should read MARTYN HAYHOW\/AFP via Getty ImagesWho had the better Wimbledon record out of Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams?<\/p>\n

Navratilova has won more Wimbledon singles titles than any other player in history with nine, that includes winning six consecutive titles between 1982 and 1985.<\/p>\n

The former number one won her final singles title 1990, eight years before Williams made her Wimbledon debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williams lost in the third round of Wimbledon<\/a> on her Wimbledon debut in 1998, before winning her first title in 2002. <\/p>\n

The last Wimbledon title of Williams\u2019 career came in 2016, but she appeared in two more finals after this point.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It was 2019 where she played her last Wimbledon final, with Williams losing to Simona Halep<\/a> in just 56 minutes.<\/p>\n\nWimbledon<\/strong><\/td>\nMartina Navratilova<\/strong><\/td>\nSerena Williams<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAppearances<\/strong><\/td>\n23<\/td>\n21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWin-loss Record <\/strong><\/td>\n120-14 (90%)<\/td>\n98-14 (88%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNumber of Finals<\/strong><\/td>\n12<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNumber of Titles<\/strong><\/td>\n9<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Williams made her final Wimbledon appearance<\/a> in 2022, losing in the first round to Frenchwoman Harmony Tan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova played many different opponents in her 23 appearances at the Wimbledon Championships. Navratilova won 18 Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[11358,10095,79,1068,16,15,5068,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-16774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-martina-navratilova","9":"tag-serena-williams","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wimbledon","15":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114331224884879850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}