Wimbledon Is Won When No One Is Watching

The date was June 22, 2008. On a temperate Sunday evening in London, I sat on Centre Court at Wimbledon to interview Martina Navratilova for a Tennis Channel piece looking back on the 30th anniversary of her first of a record nine Wimbledon singles titles.  

This was one of many times I had the opportunity to take in Martina’s epic tennis journey.  For more than 20 years, in London, Paris, Melbourne, and New York, I worked alongside her for three different TV networks – HBO, TNT, Tennis Channel.   

It was incredible to learn about all she had accomplished. Winner of an Open era record 59 major titles, Martina is also one of only three people in tennis history to have earned the singles, doubles, and mixed at all four majors. Even more amazingly, in the quest to pursue her dreams, Martina at the age 18 took the bold step of leaving her homeland of Czechoslovakia – then under Communist rule and therefore quite restrictive.  “I wanted to be able to compete fair and square,” she told me.  

This too is incredible: Martina didn’t fully blossom until after she’d already won two Wimbledon singles titles and been ranked number one in…