Courtside With Martina Navratilova

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Boston, Massachusetts – August 2006

She wanted to go quietly, but the secret would not keep. So, when the questions were too numerous and came too frequently, Martina Navratilova knew it was time to tell.

"I wasn't going to say that this was going to be my last year. I was going to keep that quiet," said Navratilova before a recent Boston Lobsters World Team Tennis match. "But I was asked so many times I finally had to say, ‘No, this is my last year.' Because I can't lie." Navratilova confirmed at Wimbledon that she would retire from competition this year, after the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 28.

Navratilova originally retired in 1994, with record 167 singles titles and 331 ensconced weeks ranked as No. 1. But in 2000, she came back to the courts, primarily as a doubles player. With her 175 doubles titles added, Navratilova's title count is 342 – more than any player, male or female – in the history of the game.

"I like playing on a team," she said. "That's why I like playing doubles because I like to talk to my teammate, to my partner. I hate being all alone on the court, because when you talk to yourself it's kind of strange. But I love being on a team. It's fun to get that support from your teammates and also to give it, try to figure out what they can and cannot do, and yelling on the sideline."

Navratilova, who turns 50 in October, is tied with Billie Jean King for a record 20 Wimbledon titles, including a record for nine women's singles championships. She was recently inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.

A phenom in her native Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution, Navratilova won that country's national tennis championship in 1972, at age 15, and turned pro the following year. She won her first professional singles title in 1974 in Orlando, Fla. In 1975, she defected to the United States, and became a citizen in 1981. Her superb volleying skills, along with her acumen, helped her raise the women's game to new levels.

The mid-1980s were the most dominant period of her career, when she held the four Grand Slam titles simultaneously between 1983 and 1984. A fourth-round loss at the French Open in 1983, her only singles defeat that season, gave her an 86-1 record for the season, and a record .988 winning percentage. From 1982 to 1984, she lost a total of just six matches. She was also the No. 1 doubles player for more than three years during that time, partnering with Pam Shriver to win all four Grand Slam doubles titles in 1984.

A member of the original WTT Boston Lobsters in the 1970s, Navratilova, who turns 50 in October, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000. She is tied with Billie Jean King for a record 20 Wimbledon titles, including a record nine women's singles titles. Claiming the Wimbledon record for her own was not, she said, her motivation for playing that Grand Slam event this year.

"I've been on the verge [of the Wimbledon record] for a while now but it wasn't about the record really," she said. "I just wanted to bring home one more Grand Slam title. Hopefully, it will happen at the U.S. Open." Navratilova now has 58 Grand Slam titles – 18 singles, 31 women's doubles, and nine mixed doubles, a prodigious and durable record.

"It's not about women winning or losing for me as much as it is for the rest of the world. But, it never was about the record. People say, ‘Oh, she's trying to break the record.' It wasn't about that at all. I kept saying it's not about that, but they don't believe me. What can you do?"

Slowed now by an injury to her right knee, sustained earlier this year while rehabbing her left knee, her game has changed over the years, thanks, in part, to both her age and improved equipment. "I think I can hit the ball hard, but not consistently as hard as I used to," she said. "I can do more spin now. Because of the racquets and the strings I can actually put more top-spin and more slice on the ball than I could 20 years ago. And I've changed my technique quite a bit hitting the shots, again because of the racquets.

"You have to adapt. I don't move as well as I did then, but some things I can do better. I know the game better. But it's harder getting to the ball, especially on a bad knee, which I have right now. So I'm slowed down a little bit from what I normally am. So, I hope to get better."

With the resumé she has assembled the walk away from the competition and esteem of tournaments such as Wimbledon is not easy. Or is it?

"It's not tough to walk away from anything because I have a great life, which is why I'm walking away," she said. "I love the competition when I'm in it, but I won't miss it when I'm not. I'm one of those people who absolutely loves what I'm doing at that moment. I don't wish that it was summer when it's winter and winter when it's summer. I love where I am, whether it's on the road playing tennis or at home or in Colorado. Whatever I'm doing, just do it the best way that I possibly can.

"So when I'm competing and it's a close match, I'm like, ‘This is what it's all about. This is what all the work is for.' When I'm doing all the work, I'm enjoying it as well. But, again, it's taking me away too much. So, it's just, you know, I won't miss it. No, I love it when I'm doing it but I'll be loving whatever else I'll be doing."

Navratilova, who now lives in Sarasota, Florida, welcomes the opportunities retirement will offer for business endeavors, tennis commentating, and spending more time with her family, and her dogs. She is also considering opening a tennis academy.

And the legacy she leaves behind?

"I don't know," she said. "You can ask somebody else. I'm not done, yet. Tennis-wise, probably the health and fitness, taking it to the next level, on the athletic level, becoming a better athlete, therefore, a better tennis player and covering all the bases. On a personal level, I'm not done yet."