She’ll be back in the commentary box this week, but before that she talks to fellow feminist activist Julie Bindel about the ban on Russian players, mental health in tennis and why this year’s Wimbledon crowd will be very loud
Martina Navratilova, tennis superstar and human rights activist, is sitting in her Miami home, the sun streaming in through the open door behind her. We are speaking on Zoom with a background chorus of barking dogs and chirping parrots – the loudest being a black-legged caique named Mango. “She makes sounds like the alarm system,” she says, laughing, “so I think a fire is going off when it’s just Mango talking.”
Navratilova won the Wimbledon women’s singles title a record nine times, including six in a row from 1982-87. In all, she won 59 slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, more than any player in history. In 2006 she won the mixed doubles at the US Open just before her 50th birthday – and 32 years after her first trophy at a major.