Martina Navratilova Chats with Jim Clash, Calls Henin Best

Martina Navratilova, whom Billie Jean King calls the best all-around women's tennis player, chats with Forbes Adventurer Jim Clash about her record 9 singles titles at Wimbledon, USTA's new QuickStart program for kids, and her experience driving a Porsche at 200mph on the Autobahn! She also calls Justine Henin best today.

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Sports

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• tennis
• Jim
• James
• Clash
• Martina
• Navratilova
• Wimbledon
• Billie
• Jean
• King
• Forbes
• Adventurer
• Porsche
• autobahn
• Justine
• Henin

[jackhurst85]

martina is the greatest player of all time.

king, however, has called henin, graf, navratilova and williams the best! make up your mind billie! lol!

[AceGuitarR7]

the williams sisters are just big hitters. henin had style power finesse. williams sisters are great but so damn boring. henin had an amazing backhand and was interesting too watch.. i cant stand the womans game now, theyre all the same. same techinque all smashing it as hard as they can from the baseline, no style.

[demc67]

Martina's not anti Williams- she played doubles with Serena.....yes- most of Martina's slams are on grass- but so are Margaret Court's (11 Aus, 3 Wim and 5 US- it wass played on grass thru 75 =19 of her 24 on grass) as well as most of Rod Laver's 10/12...Martina made 6 French finals- losing 4- 3 to Chris- probably the greatest ever on clay and 1 to Steffi 8-6 in the 3rd....

[JOHNE65]

Are people forgeting about margaret court who holds the record of most grandslams who at her peak got married and left the tour for nearly 2 years her 23 slams would be a lot more if she didn't take that time out because she was winning on average 3 slams a year..Martina has 12 slams on grass 6 off grass that doesn't sound like the greatest all rounder to me.

[kljMN2]

Of course this woman will call Henin 'the best' (highly amusing)... she's so anti-Williamses it's ridiculous. Serena's won more Slams, Serena's won two this year alone, Serena is by and far the best. Henin had a good chance to perhaps be that player, but she chose to take like 18 months of break from the tour, and frankly it's hurt her a little bit... especially at the French this year. Don't get wrong, Henin will most likely win a Slam title next year, but Serena is #1.

[dattexas]

I agree with everything you say, but I still think that 13 times on clay is not comparable to 15 times on grass. If Martina had deliberately gone after Chris on clay, the number should be more like 30. I think Martina is the best all around female player in history (Steffi 2, Chris 3), but I have to give Chris the edge (very slight) on clay. I do appreciate that you can discuss without getting nasty. It's a rare quality these days, my friend.

[Nicklas4500]

In total, Martina and Chris played each other 13 times on clay and 15 times on grass - so that doesn't look like deliberate avoidance by Martina.

You say that Martina was a superior fast court player "towards the end of their careers". Their h2h stats indicate that she was the better player on all surfaces bar clay from 1979 onwards. Grass: 10-3; Hard: 9-5; Carpet: 18-2 in Martina's favour. Chris led 5-3 in matches on clay from '79-'87.

[Nicklas4500]

I certainly agree with you that Chris was the better clay court player. The surface suited her game perfectly just as faster courts favoured Martina's serve and volley game. But I think it's a myth that Martina avoided Chris on clay: she played the Italian, French, German and US Opens (in early 70s) on clay, as well as St Petersberg, Amelia Island, Hilton Head and Houston - i.e. many more tournaments than she played on her best surface, grass.

[dattexas]

Chris was a superior clay court player - it's not just that she had the better record. Chris was better on clay. At best, Martina pulled even (almost) with Chris on clay. A factor in their record is that the clay court season is shorter, and Martina was a superior fast court player than Chris toward the end of their careers.

[dattexas]

I don't disagree with you, in terms of the overall record. But, I've read (although I'm not sure) that Martina avoided playing Chris on clay for a time in their careers, and Chris didn't have that luxury, as most of the tournaments were on faster courts. My only point:

[Nicklas4500]

Overall, in their h2h, Martina led 43-37, including 14-8 in majors and 10-4 in slam finals, which is pretty conclusive. This isn't to downgrade Evert, who's one of the very greatest ever imo, but she did come off worse against Martina in their h2h duels.

[Nicklas4500]

It's true Chris had the most dominant record on clay and led 11-3 in h2h against Martina on that surface. However, in their 8 matches on clay in the 1980s, they played a total of 163 games, at the end of which Martina trailed Chris by just 3 games... so not a wipeout by any means. On grass Chris beat Martina just 5 times in all, trailing 5-10 in their h2h. On hard courts, Chris led Martina 15-11. But on carpet, Martina had a huge 19-6 advantage over Chris...