Chris Evert d. Martina Navratilova - 1982 Australian Open F

[spacecolt]

Martina was probably disoriented by the surprise of Chris taking the net away from her... she was used to being able to count on Chris being at the back of the court and hand-picking her moments to come into net to attack. Add that Evert's passing was so spot-on, and it probably threw off any game plan she had, plus plan B.

[zephyruk]

Slightly odd performance this, by Martina. She didn't look as if she was mentally fully there - certainly not as sharp as she could do at times. I've also never seen her look so clumsy with her movement on a grass court before either - seemed like she was really lackadaisical at various points during this match.

[johnblacklovesmar]

Thanks westfaner

[FLE22P]

One big reason Martina had the better head to head record is that she would frequently avoid playing Chris on clay, where she knew Evert had no peer. Chris, on the other hand, never skipped a tournament on her 'weaker' surface, grass, where Martina was queen. Unfortunately, her record suffered for that. Cheers to Chrissie!!! 

[karrtt1234]

@FLE22P The actual break down of their rivalry is as follows, they met 35 times indoors, 16 times on hard courts, 15 times on grass, and 14 times on clay.

[BTURNER1961]

@karrtt1234 Interestingly, of those 15 times on grass, all but two went three sets with another having a tiebreak. The only legitimate route was Evert's victory in 1976.

[sk8412c]

Thanks for posting a new video! - such a wonderful different sport it was then. Great shotmaking by both of them.

[Marchjoy1963]

con... Chris said it was the best grass court match she had played. She was very focused on the win here, and she played with purpose and aggression.

[Marchjoy1963]

I remember Tennis Magazine doing a summary and break down of their Wimbledon Final (82) that year, and in it, they broke down the stats and showed the various results, then showed that Chris could have won the match, had she continued to play aggressive and follow the short balls to the net as she did in the second set. The stats show she would have won the match. I wonder if she saw that article, because she was aggressive in this match off the ground and followed all short balls in to the net.

[jockfl25]

Its funny to think of Chris's Grand Slams like this because 2 of the Grand Slams are now on Hard courts. When you think of Chris's 6 US Opens only 3 were won on Hard courts.

10 - Clay

5 - Grass

3 - Hard

[johnblacklovesmar]

What I love about both is that neither ever gives up on a ball. And Navratilova is very gracious at the end.

Did Navratilova fire Richards in favor of Estep after this tournament? This was Evert's last win until 1984. I thought she was going to retire during that time. It would be fascinating to see if it had made any difference if she had changed to a graphite earlier.

Thanks for posting. Could you also post their 88 semi-final?

[westfaner]

@johnblacklovesmar Rene Richards resigned as Martina's coach after the 83 French Open because of friction with Nancy Lieberman. It would have been interesting to see how this rivarly would have panned out if Chirs not only changed to graphite earlier, but if she had also hired a trainer earlier and starting lifting weights earlier, she waited until 84 to do both.

[VenusEbony]

The contrast between these two is so fascinating, Never ceases to amaze me. We were so spoiled but really had no idea.