The Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova rivalry/friendship

Monica was beating Steffi regularly, and imo, given her ferocity and fearlessness, would’ve gone on to the conversation of the the greatest of all time…

Nice try. Monica did get screwed, as she got stabbed....but she was never going to beat Graf at Wimbledon without better movement.

Her movement was good enough to win 7 of 8 Grand Slams, and to reach the finals at Wimbledon, only to be beaten by Graf after going silent due to a furor over her ‘grunting’, before her stabbing…

Martina owes her first Wimbledon title to her opponent’s injury—she was headed to defeat in the semis when Evonne was hurt.

Goolagong played in 17 Grand Slam singles finals during the 1970s, a period record for any player, man or woman. She was Margaret, Billie and Chris’s rival over a longer period than Chris’s rivalry with Martina.

Serena Williams had a truly stacked deck of rivalries and still managed to win 23 GS.

Graveyard Venus (7), Screamapova (5), Belgian bitch Henin (7), bratty Hingis (5), dog-faced Davenport (3), Crapriati (3), chunky Clijsters (4), peasant-nosed Halep (4), Stefi wannabe Kerber (3), crybaby Osaka (4), Azarenka (2), Muguruza (2), Kvitova (2), and munchkin Li Na (2) to name a few of those who have at least two GS wins and who made their names battling her.

Halep has won only two majors the French and Wimbledon.

R6 True. 2018 / 2019. Mislabeled. With the doping scandal sidelining her, I doubt she'll win anymore. You know Halep pissed a lot of tennis execs off the way she beat Serena and then poached her coach. They used the doping to get back at her and take her out of the running. Good. These players gave it their all to beat Serena which in turn meant they had nothing left. They all fell off a cliff after winning.

Christie & Martina tied at 18 Grand Slam Singles each, which was fitting

WTA GOAT Mountain: Serena (23), Stefi (22), Martina (18), & Chris (18)

Honorable 5th place mention: Billie Jean Clamdigger King (12)

^ your missing the woman who shall not be named

You are missing the woman who should not be named, but we know her.

Evert’s metronome baseline game was a harbinger of the current women’s scene but she didn’t have the brute power to compete today. Martina … maybe. Billie Jean? Played the whole court, beautifully and nimbly, but her game would look like a sporty damsel in pantaloons and a straw boater in today’s WTA.

The Monster 👺 from down under (hell)

R11 They deserve to hold court in hell.

Wrong—with modern equipment and the change in playing surfaces…those players could have held their own. In her own way, BJK was the precursor to Serena in mental toughness and power—the killer instinct. Court had both as well. Martina took a long time to get that same mix. Chris had mental toughness without the great power. Evonne was pure athleticism..not so much the mental toughness ;). It was a fascinating era, full of ebbs and flows.

Always Remember, MSC won 11 of her titles in her home country because no one could afford to fly there

Her record is almost unanimously discounted in the modern era

R15 Player training and conditioning is what really made the difference. That's why players from 1999-2003 were so unprepared for the explosive power of Serena and Venus. Even now, improvements in that area have made many female players stronger than they were even in the 90s. Serena's serve was the best in the game followed by Stefi's forehand and Henin's one-handed backhand slice.

It was not because they could not afford to fly..,they chose not to. Compare her head to head record with the other top players. Compare her won -loss record in GS minus the AUS open. Look at the fact that players skipped or boycotted the GS for different reasons in different years (Goolagong sued the French!—with Jimmy Connors). It’s a mix of this and that…

Acknowledge the fact the pre~Open era “argument” doesn’t hold water for women like it does for men, because there was no pro tour for women in the 60s like there was for Laver, etc.

The current, default arguments for who’s better & when are not so clear cut as they may appear.

Billie Jean said she would have won a makeup kit for winning the Australian Open after spending thousands of dollars in travel & hotels

I refuse to entertain anyone who insists on being pro Maggie Cunt. No one counts her and commentators only bring it up (along with that Calendar Golden Slam nonsense) as a way to stress players out and get in their heads.

I wasn’t defending her nasty personal reputation. I was noting that the conventional wisdom of the history of women’s tennis since the mid 60s is not necessarily consistent or fully accurate. That is all.

R19 Exactly, for years there was no financial incentive for foreigners to play the AO. It was expensive to travel that far for no real money and was long considered the runt of the Grand Slams. That distinction now belongs to RG/FO because of their hostile crowds and lower purse compared to the other three. WC and USO will always be the most prestigious GS that players will seek to claim. If you could only win two Slams, nearly everyone would say Wimbledon and the USO... unless they're French or Australian.

Monica has seemed to completely leave the public eye. I never hear her mentioned or see her at any tennis event. She was one of the greats. Such a shame what happened.

Even American men didn’t start consistently going there till the late 1970s/1980s

“Exactly, for years there was no financial incentive for foreigners to play the AO.”

—that same argument applies to all of the slams in the pre-Open era. In particular for women….many players did not compete in each of the other three year over year; that’s simply because they weren’t open to pros and women did not get under the table money like the men. Look, the arguments for who and when are better than others is subject to a little nuance.

Personally, I firmly believe Serena is the GOAT, but it is silly to suggest that under current conditions Court, King, etc. could not have been true competition for her.

martina banged jessica savitch

r10 bear king?

I have never heard this about Martina and Jessica Savitch!!! Details!!

There’s no evidence…show us where you learned that fiction

Back in 1989 I was at a Women's Tennis Event in D.C. working as a volunteer. I essentially just refilled the water cups for the players on the court.

Martina Navratilova was playing that event, and though I had never been sexually attracted to her before, I have to say that in person, she is mesmerizing. Kind of like Nancy Kulp meets Kiki Dee. Anyway, I was filling up Pam Shriver's water when she asked me if I could run into the locker room and get her Movado watch that was lying on a towel on a bench next to her locker. So I ran in there, feeling a little bit funny in my downtown lips at the opportunity to see "backstage" of the Women's tennis tour. And let me tell you right now, it didn't disappoint, as I walked in there was Chris Evert doing lunges in the buff. The only thing I can say is that it looked like she was hiding a bear cub down there. I was just about to suggest that she take some Nair to her whisker biscuit when out of the shower she came. Yes Martina Navratilova!! Wow, I had never felt so funny down in my grey clam in my life. She had a great rack, maybe a 34 C but the best was her porkchop sandwich. She had trimmed it ever so fine and it was actually in the pattern of a rooster!

Martina could tell I was checking out her goods, and she winked at me and pulled at a little string hanging from her nice piece of hair pie. She then said to me, "Do you want to earn your red wings?". Not knowing exactly what she meant but willing to do anything to be closer to this icon I nodded in agreement.

Well, the next thing you know I found out exactly what she meant, Martina's girl was bleeding like the Serenghetti and my face was slopping it up like Hattie McDaniel at an all you can eat jumbo fried shrimp buffet. I earned my red wings all right, the sides of my mouth to my cheeks were crimson with her rotted girl eggs.

Wow Martina!

Go to be Mauresmo, R30.

No one cares about your lezzie wet dreams.

You have no clue how hard Chrissie hit the ball. It was hardly necessary for her to bring it all. There's a YT video of her from the 70's, with clips of her playing Wade, Court and Goolagong on fast carpet indoors, and she was 20/21 at the time, cracking the ball with pace. Her combined mental toughness and accuracy had her winning on every surface. King and Court were incredible too, King got so low on her volleys it's no wonder she had constant knee problems. King's overhead was brutal, and she had that bitchy aura that intimidated and overwhelmed. Court could win on everything, and had endurance and a long reach at the net. She also had a backhand overhead/high backhand volley that was an instant put away. They all played with wood, too. Their accuracy and expertise compared to Serena's brut power(and her often awful positioning) would have been fun to watch.

Back to Chrissie and Martina

[quote]In the 12 years from the introduction of the WTA rankings in November 1975 until August 1987, one of the two held the top spot in all but 23 weeks, switching multiple times between 1978 and 1985.

[quote]More specifically, in the first 615 weeks of the WTA rankings they collectively held the No. 1 ranking for 592 weeks, Navratilova at 332 weeks and Evert at 260 weeks

Evonne Goolagong managed 2 weeks and Tracy Austin managed 21 weeks.

Gods Of Tennis, mentioned in my OP, is available here.