{"id":78133,"date":"2025-05-06T03:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T03:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78133\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T03:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T03:42:12","slug":"martina-navratilova-once-predicted-exactly-what-would-have-happened-if-she-faced-serena-williams-back-in-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78133\/","title":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova once predicted exactly what would have happened if she faced Serena Williams back in 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams only crossed paths for a brief period in their respective careers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Williams won the US Open in 1999<\/a>, where she beat Martina Hingis<\/a> to win her first major singles title at 17-years-old.<\/p>\n

At this point, Navratilova<\/a> had announced her retirement, before making a comeback to the WTA Tour<\/a> in 2000.<\/p>\n

Navratilova officially retired in 2006<\/a> at 49-years-old, but was never able to play a singles match against Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Dan Istitene\/Getty ImagesWhat Martina Navratilova predicted would have happened if she faced Serena Williams in 2003<\/p>\n

Three years before her final farewell in 2003, Navratilova spoke to the Guardian<\/a> about Serena Williams, who was a six-time Grand Slam champion at the time.<\/p>\n

In this interview, Navratilova was asked about how a hypothetical match between Williams and herself at her 1980\u2019s peak would have gone.<\/p>\n

\"JulJul 1987: Martina Navratilova of the USA holds up the winner plate after winning the Wimbledon Championships played at Wimbledon, London, England. Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK \/Allsport<\/p>\n

Navratilova won 15 of her 18 major singles titles in the 1980\u2019s, and backed herself to at least win some matches against Williams.<\/p>\n

However, Navratilova admitted that Williams had the potential to have a better career than her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would certainly win some matches . . . but so would she,\u201d said Navratilova. \u201cIt\u2019s real tough to say who would win more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if she ever reaches her potential she could be better than I was \u2013 but tennis is about so much more than just pure ability. Serena is still learning about the game. A lot depends on how much she wants to stretch herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, she and Venus featured in my list of goals at the start of the year. I aimed to win another Grand Slam and to make it to the Fed Cup. The third aim was to beat the Williams sisters \u2013 but I never got the chance to play them. Maybe next year?\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams retired 19 years later in 2022<\/a>, finishing her career with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any woman in the Open Era.<\/p>\n

What happened when Martina Navratilova played the Williams\u2019 sisters in doubles?<\/p>\n

After she officially retired, Navratilova admitted Serena was her dream opponent<\/a>, despite never being able to play her in singles.<\/p>\n

Although she was never able to fulfill her dream match in singles, Navratilova did twice go head-to-head with Serena and Venus Williams<\/a> in doubles.<\/p>\n

The first of those meetings came in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon<\/a> in 2000, where Navratilova partnered South African Mariaan de Swardt.<\/p>\n

Despite winning the first set, Navratilova and De Swardt were unable to beat the exciting young American sibling duo of Serena and Venus, who won 4-6 6-2 6-1.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto credit should read MARTYN HAYHOW\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After beating Navratilova and De Swardt, the Williams sisters would go onto win their first Wimbledon title together that year.<\/p>\n

They would go head-to-head at another Grand Slam tournament three years later, this time Navratilova would partner Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was a much more one-sided affair, as the Williams sisters dropped just five games en route to winning another Grand Slam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams only crossed paths for a brief period in their respective careers. Williams won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[11358,10095,79,1068,16,15,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-78133","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-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114458824156403198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78133","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=78133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}