Match 2 has been drawn to be played on grass, meaning clay will come up in the bottom half of the draw.
For grass courts though, this is a match for the ages.
4th seed - Helen Wills Moody has won 19 slams in total, 15 of those on grass at Wimbledon and the US Open, and has won 8 Wimbledon titles in total. She also won the Olympics in 1924 on grass, in Paris (of all places), but on grass. Wills Moody never played Australia by the way, in case anyone asks, and her final slam was in 1938 before the second World Wat interrupted her career and effectively finished it.
5th seed Martina Navratilova has 18 slams to her name, of which 12 are on grass - 9 at Wimbledon and 3 in Australia before the courts swapped down under.
On a grass court, it is hard to see, apart from Margaret Court, how we could have a better and a tighter match up.
Who do you think will win? Poll will close around 5 pm tomorrow.
Helen Newington Wills (October 6, 1905 January 1, 1998), also known as Helen Wills Moody and Helen Wills Roark, was an American tennis player. She became famous around the world for holding the top position in women's tennis for a total of nine years: 192733, 1935 and 1938.[1] She won 31 Grand Slam tournament titles (singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles) during her career, including 19 singles titles.
Wills was the first American woman athlete to become a global celebrity, making friends with royalty and film stars despite her preference for staying out of the limelight. She was admired for her graceful physique and for her fluid motion. She was part of a new tennis fashion, playing in knee-length pleated skirts rather than the longer ones of her predecessors. Unusually, she practiced against men to hone her craft, and she played a relentless game, wearing down her female opponents with power and accuracy. In 1933 she beat the 8th-ranked US male player in an exhibition match.
Her record of eight wins at Wimbledon was not surpassed until 1990 when Martina Navratilova won nine. She was said to be "arguably the most dominant tennis player of the 20th century",[2] and has been called by some (including Jack Kramer, Harry Hopman, Mercer Beasley, Don Budge, and AP News) the greatest female player in history.
Martina Navratilova (Czech: Martina Navrátilová pronounced [mar'cna navraclova]; born Martina ubertová pronounced [marcna ubrtova]; October 18, 1956) is a Czechoslovak-born American former professional tennis player and coach. In 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1975 through 2005 and she is considered one of the best female tennis players of all time.[2][3][4][5][6]
Navratilova was world No. 1 for a total of 332 weeks in singles, and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks. She was year-end singles No. 1 seven times, including a record of five consecutive years, as well as year-end doubles No. 1 five times, including three consecutive years during which she held the ranking for the entire year.
She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, marking the Open Era record for the most Grand Slam titles won by one player, male or female. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including for nine consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record nine times (surpassing Helen Wills Moody's eight Wimbledon titles),[7] including a run of six consecutive titles, widely regarded as the best performance by any professional player at a major event. She and Billie Jean King each won 20 combined Wimbledon titles, an all-time record. Navratilova is also one of just three women ever to have accomplished a Career Grand Slam in women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles, called the career "Grand Slam Boxed Set"; consisting of every senior Grand Slam title, a distinction she shares only with two others, Margaret Court and Doris Hart.
Navratilova holds the records for most singles (167) and doubles titles (177) in the Open Era. Her record as No. 1 in singles (198286) remains the most dominant in professional tennis to date. Over five consecutive seasons, she won 428 out of 442 singles matches, averaging fewer than three losses per year to 87 wins, for a sustained winning percentage of 96.8%. She holds the best season win-loss record in the Open Era, 86-1 (98.9%) in 1983, and four out of the top six Open Era seasons. She recorded the longest winning streak in the Open Era (74 consecutive matches) as well as three out of the six longest winning streaks in history.
She and Serena Williams are the only Open Era players to have won six major singles crowns without the loss of a set. Navratilova, Margaret Court and Maureen Connolly share the record for the most consecutive major singles titles (six). Navratilova reached 11 consecutive major singles finals, second all-time only to Steffi Graf's 13, and is the only woman ever to reach 19 consecutive major semifinals. Navratilova also won the season-ending WTA Tour Championships for top ranked players a record eight times and made the finals a record 14 times. She is the only player of either sex to have won eight different tournaments at least seven times.[8] She was ranked in the world's top 10 in singles for a record 20 consecutive years (19751994), a span which included 19 years in the top 5, 15 years in the top 3, and 7 years as the world No. 1 ranked singles player. Navratilova is regarded by many to be the greatest female tennis player of all time.
In women's doubles, Navratilova and Pam Shriver had one of the most successful partnerships in history and won 109 consecutive matches[9] including all four major titles, the doubles Grand Slam, in 1984. The pair set an all-time record of 79 titles together and tied the record set by Louise Brough Clapp and Margaret Osborne duPont of 20 major women's doubles titles as a team. Navratilova also won the WTA Tour Championships doubles title a record 11 times. She is one of only five tennis players of all-time to win a multiple slam set in two disciplines, matched only by Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Frank Sedgman and Serena Williams. Navratilova won her last major title in 2006, adding the mixed doubles crown at the 2006 US Open to her resume just a few weeks before her 50th birthday, 32 years after her first Grand Slam title in 1974.
Originally from Czechoslovakia, she was stripped of her citizenship[10] when, in 1975 at age 18, she asked the United States for political asylum and was granted temporary residence.[11] At the time, Navratilova was told by the Czechoslovak Sports Federation that she was becoming too Americanized, and she should go back to school and make tennis secondary.[12] Navratilova became a US citizen in 1981, and on January 9, 2008, she reacquired Czech citizenship.[13] She stated she has not renounced her U.S. citizenship nor does she plan to do so, and that reclaiming Czech nationality was not politically motivated.
