Q&A: A matched set
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova may rule the lawns of Wimbledon this year. But it's the unmatched rivalry of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova that still scores as the sport's high point. During a 16-year period, these tennis legends played each other 80 times. Sixty of those match-ups were in the finals of tournaments. Over the course of that competition, the two also developed a genuine off-court friendship. U.S. News interviewed sportswriter Johnette Howard about her first book, The Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship ($25).
How could these two fierce competitors and dissimilar personalities become friends?
They were so separated from everyone else on the tour, they realized that they were the only ones who could really understand each other. They raged at each other on court, but there was also this respect.
Why didn't the fans get bored watching these two women play each other for every title?
Everyone then defined themselves as either a Chris or a Martina fan. There weren't many people who liked both. And it was the sort of decision that said something about your politics or where you're from. When they played, it was an occasion.
In your book, you talk about the sort of disapproval from fans Navratilova got when she enlisted an entourage to help her train. Was that outcry just because no tennis player had done this before or because of the personalities in "Team Navratilova"?
It was kind of absurd of Martina to think that people were not going to be shocked, that this 6-foot-2 transsexual ophthalmologist/coach [Renee Richards] and a redhead basketball player [Nancy Lieberman] who was called "Agent Orange" behind her back were not going to get noticed. But they made Martina better. Everybody would look at it as this time when she really got into shape, but the psychological overhaul was just as important. Nancy could tell her things that motivated her. Nancy would say something and it came true.
How did Evert change the sport of tennis?
Evert was revolutionary in her own way with making people comfortable with women athletes. Before Evert, they were still sort of seen as freakish. She came along, and she was sort of the perfect person for everybody, an antidote for [negative perceptions] of feminism but also the flowering of the new career woman who could have it all. She's really been the best ambassador tennis has ever had.
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