Martina by Adrianne Blue

Britain's foremost writer on women's sports has written the definitive biography of four-time U.S. Open singles winner Martina Navratilova, the greatest female tennis player of all time. Probing, dramatic, rich in anecdote, Martina reveals the happiest - and the most painful - moments in the controversial life of the only woman ever to win nine Wimbledon singles titles. Martina's childhood was a grudge match against the Communist Czech government. When she won that difficult contest, she was given a shot at the American dream. Withstanding extraordinary political and personal pressures, Martina repeatedly reinvented herself, decisively changing her life as she changed the women's game. When the media exposed her lesbian relationships, Martina displayed a courageous and unprecedented candor. No other sports champion has figured so prominently in the arenas of world and sexual politics. Now, as Martina enters on a new era, Adrianne Blue tells the unvarnished story of an astonishing life and speculates on what will become of the woman who broke all the rules, emerging a winner time after time. Included in the book are interviews on both sides of the Atlantic with people who have been important in Martina's private and professional lives, among them Judy Nelson, Rita Mae Brown, and Billie Jean King; a revealing examination of the inside world of women's tennis; all the drama of Martina's triumphs and traumas on and off the court; and keen insights into why it is Martina's nature to tempt fate.