Chris Evert d. Martina Navratilova - 1980 Semifinals of the Big W

Coming back from a set & 1-3 down in the 2nd, and again from a break down in the 3rd, this is one of Chrissie's biggest victories at The Championships. Her 3 titles at WImbledon aside, winning the 1980 semifinal helped establish Evert's return to the throne of women's tennis, regaining the year-end #1 ranking. And of course, it's also one of her 2 wins over Navratilova on the grass courts of Martina's best career tournament, where she gained a full half of her total Grand Slam count. Taking the last 5 games to secure a 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory, the dramatic win may have taken enough out of her that she came up flat against Evonne Goolagong in the final, who played like a dream. Still it saw her through to her 6th of an astounding TEN appearances in Wimbledon finals.

Chris won Wimbledon in 1974, 76 & 81. DVD footage courtesy of chrisevert.net.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• chris
• evert
• martina
• navratilova
• 1980
• ice
• maiden
• princess
• classic
• wta
• semifinals

[yescanto]

I have said it before ... but I must say it again, I just love Chris's dress ! So pretty... just beautiful in fact. She looks amazing in this dress, I wonder who designed it ?

[robubc]

...These two brilliant players put to shame the games of today's players!! : where it feels likeamazon-woman-meets-the-tar­getshooting, instead of chess-like, fearless and varied all-court play! And Chris Evert is my all-time favorite woman player. Bravo to her. She was superb, win or lose.

[lukesilver5369]

Incredible how the whole crowd was behind Chrissie

[BCNbananas]

fantastic lobbing!

[vicsmith5000]

So how come these two weren't seeded 1 & 2 in 1980 ? Seems amazing ! Was Evert seeded 3 this year ? Surely not ?

[twilliger123]

@yescanto Ted Tinling designed the dress.

[exposednerve12]

@lebartonne - Chris was stronger than Martina, no doubt, and not nearly as dependent. If you saw the 30-30 special you might have noticed, too, that even though Martina tended to dominate on the court, in their relationship off the court you could tell that Chris was the dominant one.

[lebartonne]

@exposednerve12 exactly. everybody needs someONE....not someMANY....which takes us right back to my original point.

[exposednerve12]

@lebartonne - You seem to forget that Chris's game went off a bit during the time she was separated from John Lloyd and having an affair with British rock star Adam Faith. Chris needed stability in her life as well. After she reconciled with John, her tennis improved greatly and she started beating Martina again. Everyone needs someone. 

[lebartonne]

@Nicklas4500 can we stick to my original point? everyone seems to have gone off on a tangent, through a mixture of ego talking or else bad education and the inability to read texts.

[lebartonne]

@Nicklas4500 chris herself also says, in front of martina in the documentary, that at the time she was pissed off because of the "hate chris" mentality employed for martina to get betterat her tennis. the fact remains that had martina not taken up with her team she would never have reached her peak. that's a fact whether you like it or not,and it's the point i'm making. chris didnt need that amount of people behind her. that's a fact. all i'm doing is stating facts here.