Once rivals — among the most competitive and compelling matchups in the history of sport — lately they’ve been working side by side for a higher cause.
Several weeks ago in Houston, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert launched a series of promotional efforts devoted to drawing critical attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They visited the laboratories at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and presented a significant grant from the WTA ACEing Cancer by Hologic campaign to gifted researcher Dr. Rachel Dittmar for her project Triple Negative Breast Cancer, a particularly virulent strain.
More recently, the champions of the WTA Foundation’s ACEing Cancer by Hologic campaign shot a video in Fort Lauderdale.
Here’s a snippet:
Chris: Every ace raises money in the fight against cancer.
Martina: A cause that’s close to my heart — and yours.
Chris: We’ve been in many on-court battles. Like when I beat you in the WTA Finals in ‘75.
Martina: Or when I beat you in ’83 and ’84.
Chris: But now we’re teaming up to battle together.
Martina: Help us ace cancer and go to WTA.com/aceingcancer to learn more.
They were born two years apart, in vastly different circumstances, but Navratilova and Evert have a rich history going back to January 1973 when they first met at the Racquet club of Fort Lauderdale. Evert was playing backgammon and said hello to the shy 16-year-old from Czechoslovakia.
That was 51 years — more than half a century. They first played a few months later in Akron, Ohio.
They met 80 times over a span of 16 years — 60 of those were finals — and the final head-to-head went to Navratilova, 43-37. For nearly 12 years after the WTA Tour rankings were introduced in 1975, one of them held the No.1 ranking for all but 23 weeks. Navratilova won 167 titles, while Evert won 157. Steffi Graf (107) is a distant third on the all-time list.
Perhaps appropriately, they both collected 18 Grand Slam singles titles. With the WTA Finals underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it might be fitting to note that Navratilova won a record eight titles at the year-end tournament, including six straight from 1981-86. She appeared in 14 finals; Evert is next, with eight.
After five separate bouts with cancer (three for Navratilova, two for Evert), they have a powerful common bond: empathy. When they were at their lowest, a call or a text drastically changed the temperature.
“I think because of what we went through in…