Martina goes out to grass

Published on Sunday 4 July 2004 00:08

WELL, that’s it, or so she says. Martina Navratilova will never again grace the green grass of Wimbledon.

The dream, as always where one of the game’s greatest competitors is concerned, was to prove herself in a class of her own, by usurping the record of 20 Wimbledon wins she currently has to share with Billie-Jean King. It wasn’t to be.

Aged 47 she returned to the scene of so many of her greatest triumphs, throughout a career that has spanned more than three decades but despite an assault on two fronts, battling alongside Leander Paes in the mixed doubles and Lisa Raymond in the ladies doubles, she leaves SW19 empty-handed.

Having become the oldest player to win a crown at the Championships in the Open era, when she won the mixed event last year to equal the record, she and Paes lost out in the third round on Friday, while she and Raymond were defeated one step shy of the final, losing 7-6, 7-5 to Leizel Huber and Ai Sugiyama in the ladies event yesterday.

"Nerves got to me a little bit today but not as bad as it has been in the past. I thought I was still taking it to them pretty good but their reflexes were amazing today. They got a lot of balls over and neither one of us could put them away. I tried very hard. I tried hard yesterday, I tried hard the day before. That’s probably the hardest that I’ve ever tried and I still lost but that’s how it goes."

But having failed in her plight to overshadow King, will she rethink her decision to call it quits at the end of this year and keep going until next summer? She was emphatic with her reply in the negative as she ever is on court.

But she refused to be too downbeat, saying that bidding a final farewell was not as hard as she had expected, especially compared to the day she bowed out of the singles.

"I think this was a lot less emotional. It’s just a pity that the ending was so anti-climatic. We had a pretty good crowd but it definitely ended on a pretty weird note to say the least."

Still out on court competing through the drizzle she said conditions were manageable, but being overshadowed by both men’s semi-finals and the ladies final is not the norm for a player who has basked in the Wimbledon spotlight for so long.

"We gave it our best shot, she said with the characteristic Navratilova shrug. The questions then moved on to her thoughts on the new singles winner. Yes, a new star has been born just as one of the brightest finally burned out.