"We didn't have enough money to have a team, so we practiced together" - When Chris Evert reflected on French Open final against Martina Navratilova
Chris Evert once reminisced how she and Martina Navratilova did a lot of things together in the lead-up to their meeting in the 1975 French Open final.
Evert, just 20 at the time, entered the tournament as the defending champion and booked her place in the final without dropping a single set. In the summit clash she was scheduled to face Martina Navratilova, who was a teenager back then.
Navratilova won the opening set 6-2 but Evert bounced back to take the next two sets 6-2 and 6-1 to successfully defend her Roland Garros title.
Evert spoke about that 1975 final last year while appearing on the Fantastic Tennis podcast hosted by Jon Guerrica. They were discussing the early days of the Virginia Slims Tour, now known as the WTA Tour, when Evert recalled a funny story about the 1975 final.
The 68-year-old said that she and Navratilova practiced with one another before the final and even had lunch together. After playing the final they also attended the press conference together, before catching their flight - again, together.
"I just laugh when I tell this story about the French Open when Martina and I played in the finals. The locker room had cleared out because it was the finals. We looked at each other. Martina and I practiced with each other before our final, then we ate lunch together, and I remember we ate roasted chicken and mashed potatoes," Chris Evert said.
"We ate lunch together and then we played the finals. We each went to press and then, we took a flight out of there together. So, we did everything together," she went on.
Evert further revealed that the reason the two practiced together was that they did not have enough money to hire a coaching team or physios.
"We didn't have coaches, we didn't have enough money to have a team or have coaches or phsios or anything like that. So we practiced together. I remember Martina going 'Do you want me to serve any more'? I went, 'Yea I need to practice the out wide serve on the backhand side'. I would say, 'Do you need any more lobs?' She would go, 'Yea I need a couple more lobs'. It was pretty funny," Evert said.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova also teamed up in the women's doubles tournament at the French Open that year, beating Julie Anthony and Olga Morozova in the final.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova locked horns in five French Open finals
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova had a fierce rivalry and faced each other in 15 Grand Slam singles finals. Five of those came at the French Open, starting with the one that Evert won in 1975.
They met in the final of the claycourt Major again in 1984 and this time Navratilova came out on top, winning 6-3, 6-1. However, Evert triumphed 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5 in the 1985 final, before winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 1986. That was also her last Grand Slam triumph.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova locked horns on a total of 80 occasions, with the latter leading 43-37 in the head-to-head.