For 15 years, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert kept meeting with trophies between them.
On Navratilova’s 70th birthday, there was no trophy to fight over. Evert was simply one of the people she most wanted in the room.
Navratilova celebrated the milestone in Miami surrounded by former rivals, old friends and family, with a guest list that read like several decades of women’s tennis compressed into one restaurant.
Pam Shriver, Tracy Austin, Rosie Casals, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Mary Carillo, Chanda Rubin and Gigi Fernández were among those who joined her at Casa Matilda.
Navratilova’s wife Julia Lemigova and daughters Emma and Victoria were there too.
But one guest still carried a different weight.
“Having Chris there was the icing on the cake,” Navratilova said.
From 80 Matches to a Birthday Table
That Evert occupied a special place should surprise nobody.
RallyHer’s most complete account on the internet of their rivalry traces 80 official singles matches from 1973 to 1988, with Navratilova eventually finishing 43-37 ahead. Sixty of those meetings were finals.
Fourteen were Grand Slam finals, with Navratilova winning 10 of them. Both women ultimately finished their careers with 18 Grand Slam singles titles.
Those numbers explain the rivalry.
They do not quite explain the friendship.
Evert’s birthday message perhaps did that better. She described Navratilova as someone who had been part of her life for 50 years, calling her a great friend, a fierce rival and a wonderful person.
Half a century is a long time to know anyone.
Doing so while spending much of that time trying to beat her on the biggest courts in the world makes the relationship something else entirely.
Seventy, but Apparently Not Interested in Slowing Down
Navratilova herself was reflective about the number.
“Seventy is a big number, but I’m grateful that I was able to reach this age,” she said.
The birthday celebrations were not exactly preceded by a quiet afternoon either.
Before heading to Miami, Navratilova had been in Santa Fe with Tracy Austin for a charity event, then travelled on for the evening celebration.
Pam Shriver later shared photographs from the gathering, where Evert and Mary Carillo were among those who spoke.
For Shriver, the evening also offered a reminder of something that lasts considerably longer than a playing career: the friendships tennis created around it.
The Rivalry Finished Long Ago, the Story Never Really Did
Navratilova and Evert played their final official singles match in 1988.
Yet their names have never really separated.
This year, that relationship returned to the screen in “Chris & Martina: The Final Set”, another reminder that people remain fascinated not simply by who won more often, but by what happened to the two women after all that competing.
The answer could be seen rather neatly in Miami.
At 70, Navratilova could have filled the room with champions.
She did.
But the person she singled out was still Chris.