Martina Navratilova v Chris Evert Full Match | Australian Open 1988 Semifinal

[@JLZR1]

Chris,in the latter stages of her illustrious career, marketly improved her serve strength and began using a more open stance forehand, giving her a bit of topspin…as the foundation of her overall game was based on solid, balanced technique,and footwork, improvements were not a complicated issue…also, as a reminder, she only switched to that graphite racquet in ‘84, prior to that she grew up and competed with a wood racquet… she would IMO, have been equally successful in any era of women’s tennis….a true tennis champion 🙏

[@Sully44JJ]

Keep these classic matches coming!

[@tobiasisback4605]

Evert was pretty lethal that day.

[@danielkenna-l6r]

That’s me in the crowd @2.51 drinking from a Coke cup 🤗🤩😍

[@andyroo9381]

I am so happy to see this match. First time ever! It's hard to watch AO matches here in the USA. They show at 2AM or 3AM and I am left to find out the results in the morning. Thank you!!

[@jigsterify]

That’s what we in Australia put up with the rest of the season… though I used to love as a kid all night sessions for women’s semis or finals, popcorn and hot chocolate ready

[@zeddeka]

Chris's last Australian Open and Martina's last in singles was the following year. Martina said on Twitter recently that she stopped playing the Australian Open for two reasons. Firstly, like a lot of people she hated the Rebound Ace surface. She felt it was dangerous when hot as it started to melt. She said she actually burned herself on it once when getting down low for a volley (Gabriela Sabatini sprained her ankle in 1990 on it). Martina also said that when the Australian Open moved from grass at Kooyong the players were consulted on which surface they wanted - they said they didn't want Rebound Ace but were ignored. Secondly, Martina said that as she got older she found the scheduling of the Australian Open in January too difficult to recover from the previous season. The Australian Open had previously been held in December and moved to the January slot in 1987.

[@jigsterify]

Cry me a river Martina..how about she hated a hard court which gave players like Evert, Graf, Seles etc a much better shot at beating her and she was too old to execute the perfect serve volley game to win on a non grass surface… Martina always had an exscuse

[@tobiasisback4605]

@@jigsterifyEvert used to dip out of whole indoor carpet seasons because the surface didn’t suit her game 🤷‍♀️. Players manage their schedules to maximise ranking points and chances of success through the year, nothing wrong with that. Why risk injury? And the player with the most pro wins in both singles and doubles and the most dominant 6 year spell in the open era needs no excuses.

[@stacked7476]

@@tobiasisback4605 Well, let’s be honest, yes? Martina knew she didn’t stand a chance against Steffi on this surface. By 1989 she probably admitted to herself that she wouldn’t want to travel all this way knowing she would only be runner up at best. Graf was firing bullets on this surface in 1988-1990. And only if Steffi wobbled onto court in a drunk state could you ever say that Martina had a chance.

[@tobiasisback4605]

@ You're wrong. Actually Martina beat Steffi at USO91 to go 5-4 up in slams, aged 34+, so…

[@tobiasisback4605]

@@stacked7476 Listen. Martina had played and won more tennis matches than anyone else in history 82-86. At one point she was holder of all 4 slam titles in both singles and doubles simultaneously - won a record 6 singles slams and record 8 doubles slams in a row, nobody else ever did that. Even if you discount doubles entirely as Grafanatics do, even Graf was never as dominant in singles for any 5 unbroken years as Martina was 82-86. Martina has best win loss season, 3 of top 5 seasons, record consecutive slams, 6 YECs, 6 consecutive Wimbledons, longest unbeaten streak etc. etc. And she was setting similar records in doubles. By 88-89 she was burnt out, past her very best. She was older than a retired Graf. But she regrouped by 1990, beat Graf in 2 of 4 meetings and won their last major encounter aged almost 35 to Graf's prime early 20s. If she decided to sit out a few slams at this point of her career on a surface that hurt her already shot knees, that is her prerogative - she had earned that right without some ignorant Grafanatic making a big deal out of it.

[@davidwatts5579]

Agreed. Love it!

[@johannebimont6960]

Great match of Chris.

[@tomogden9503]

Such a wonderful match by Chris ❤

[@keithlawford-r5e]

hot diggity dog another one, great! some Steffi Graf matches would be nice too