"Difficult to be playing three people at once" - When Andrea Jaeger accused Martina Navratilova of receiving illegal coaching during French Open final
Martina Navratilova was accused of receiving illegal coaching during the 1982 French Open final by Andrea Jaeger.
Navratilova entered the tournament as the second seed and booked her place in the final with wins over Candy Reynolds, Lisa Bonder, Kathy Rinaldi, Zina Garrison, and Hana Mandlikova.
Here, she was up against 17-year-old Andrea Jaeger, who dropped only ten games en route to the final and beat then-four-time champion Chris Evert in the semifinals. Navratilova won the final 7-6(6), 6-1 to win her very first title at the French Open.
After the match, Jaeger said that the Czech-American was receiving illegal coaching from her coach at the time Renee Richards, claiming that it affected her concentration. She also stated that the same happened in previous matches and that it wasn't good for tennis.
''It sort of blew my concentration. It's difficult to be playing three people at once. I was trying in the whole first set to deal with it, and I was doing fine. But it was annoying. They've done it in other matches. It's not very good for tennis," Jaeger said.
The then-25-year-old Navratilova said that she was shocked about the accusations, claiming that she did not need to look at her coach, Renee Richards, during the match.
''This is a shock. All I can say is that I never looked at Renee except for encouragement. Here I have won the final of one of the biggest tournaments in the world," Martina Navratilova said.
"Thank you very much, Andrea. I didn't have to look up at them. Before I played, I went over the match 20 times with Renee. I could have recited in my sleep what I had to do against her. I didn't need to look at Renee," she added.
Martina Navratilova leads 11-4 in the head-to-head against Andrea Jaeger
Martina Navratilova and Andrea Jaeger locked horns on 15 occasions, with the former leading 11-4 in the head-to-head. The first meeting between the two took place in the semifinals of the 1980 Lynda Carter Classic, with Jaeger winning 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
Jaeger won her first three matches against Navratilova but the Czech-American came out on top in 11 out of the next 12 encounters.
Martina Navratilova and Andrea Jaeger locked horns twice in Grand Slams, with the 1982 French Open final being their first encounter. Their next meeting at a Major came at the 1983 Wimbledon final, with the Czech-American winning 6-0, 6-3. This also turned out to be the last meeting between Navratilova and Jaeger.