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[vocal music playing]
[audience chattering indistinctly]
[female announcer] Take your seats quickly, please.
[vocal music crescendoes]
[commentator 1] When you look at the capacity crowd,
and they set a new attendance record.
[over speaker] Chris Evert Lloyd against Martina Navratilova.
[commentator 2] Two best in the world.
[commentator 2] This should be a beauty.
No one's going through the other one like whipped cream in this.
[commentator 1] No, sir.
[tense music playing]
[audience gasping]
[audience cheering]
[cheering continues]
[commentator 1] She got there and couldn't make the shot!
Sensational point!
The key to any rivalry is that you make each other better.
[dramatic music playing]
And you make the sport better. That's your dream.
[commentator 1] Another sensational point.
[woman 1] This is Godzilla meets Mothra.
I mean, they're setting each other on fire.
They're flaming each other.
[audience cheering]
[man 1] Of all the great rivalries in all of sports…
[commentator 1] Ali, Frazier.
Two champions drawing the best out of each other.
[commentator 2] Larry Bird is close to gaining revenge
in that personal battle with Magic Johnson.
[commentator 3] No question, hands down the rivalry of the decade.
…to me, there has been no other rivalry in any sport
that has equaled Chris Evert versus Martina Navratilova.
Eighty fucking times they played each other.
Yeah, I mean, that just seems insane.
[grunting]
[woman 1] The most combative, cold-hearted pursuers of greatness
that you've ever met in your entire life.
I don't think either one of them wants to admit how bad it was.
[umpire] Advantage Navratilova.
Oh my God!
[dramatic music continues]
They were battling a war forever on the tennis court.
[audience cheering]
[man 2] And now, in life, they're trying to save each other.
[turn signal ticking]
[engine running]
[Martina] I still get, like, PTSD being here.
Um…
Yeah.
It hit me when I was here for the Open
because it was always such a happy… happy thing to be here.
But then the seven weeks of misery was pretty rough.
[solemn music playing]
-[doctor] Knock, knock. -Hello!
-Oh my goodness, hi. You look great. Hi. -Hello. Thank you.
[doctor] I think the short hair suits you.
Yes, I have been called "sir" a few more times.
-Shine the light. -Ah. Stick out your tongue.
[Martina] I'm nervous. This is my first checkup
since my treatment finished four months ago.
[doctor] Deep, slow breaths.
[Martina] I was diagnosed with breast cancer as well as throat cancer.
Uh, I had a lumpectomy on the right breast.
Then I had the proton and chemo on the throat.
There was a lot of moving parts.
[doctor] You're… you're not that far out of treatment.
The… the great thing is that you're done with chemo,
but, you know, if you look at the surveillance guidelines
for head and neck cancers,
I think doing a PET scan in one year is reasonable.
Strong, powerful heart. Can you lie down for me?
I mean, I've been walking now half a mile,
and, you know, just doesn't bother me at all.
Excellent. Are you taking any pain medication?
-No. Nothing. -Okay.
Ow! Oh.
Sorry. That was…
-Belly button's a little sensitive. -Yeah.
Oh, shit. Are you going to stick it through my nose or…?
[technician] Yeah. You'll be okay?
Ah! [coughs]
-[Martina cries out, coughs] -Breathe through your nose.
-You can say, eee. -[inhales] Eee.
-Beautiful. -[Martina exhales]
Textbook. Wow.
-Ah! -Stick your tongue all the way out.
-[gags] Oh my God! -Got it. No problem.
[Martina laughs] Fuck!
It's all good, Lulu.
You can relax now.
[Martina] It's the waiting now.
Dr. Wong is next.
Waiting to see whether the cancer is completely gone
with this constant stress of cancer hanging over me.
[music fades]
[doctor] Last time when I saw you, you did not have any symptoms.
[Chris] Yeah.
[doctor] Unfortunately, this time,
it's not great news.
The PET/CT picked up cancer cells.
I asked my team, and we all agree,
you're gonna take aggressive chemotherapy.
So expectations, number one, fatigue, hair loss.
We know that's gonna happen. We're gonna watch you very closely--
You know what? I just got my hair to a point where I really like it now.
And now it's gonna go again? Are you kidding me?
-[doctor] I know. Sorry. Yeah. -[laughs]
[solemn music playing]
[doctor] We're gonna keep fighting. You're a fighter. I'm a fighter. Okay?
Now, we have…
[Chris] I had ovarian cancer two years ago.
After surgery…
[Chris] Now the cancer has come back a second time.
It's like, okay,
this is about life or death now.
I better get my shit together.
I better resolve any kind of issues that I have in my life.
Some of the strength in my tennis comes into play with my cancer.
The intangibles,
the emotional and mental part.
[distant applause]
[Chris] If I set my mind to something,
I would work like nobody's ever worked before.
And I would make it happen.
[music fades]
[upbeat music playing]
[woman] In 1970, women's tennis was getting bigger.
There were great players.
Rosie, Virginia, Billie Jean.
[narrator] Billie Jean King, world tennis champion
and leader of a special brand of female revolutionaries.
[King] The girls have changed for the better.
They feel, "I've done it."
"I didn't have to ask Mom and Dad for the money."
"I did it because I played well. I earned that money."
[audience cheering, applauding]
[music ends]
And then here comes Chrissie.
[tender music playing]
[woman] The first time I saw her was at the US Open.
Back then, everyone was serve and volley, which means they would play at the net.
[laughing] All of a sudden, there's this little 16-year-old
that's squaring it up at the baseline and carving into people,
changing everything.
[commentator1] Evert.
[audience applauding]
If somebody around here is nervous, it's not Christine Marie Evert.
I actually was in the stadium watching Chrissie play her first match
against Mary-Ann Eisel.
She was down, I think, six match points.
[commentator 1] And the kid comes back. Chrissie Evert.
[applause]
And she won every one.
I was quietly stunned.
I didn't know that you could be great without being a grown-up.
And here's Chrissie doing that.
[commentator 2] Chrissie Evert against Billie Jean King.
Another lob, which will be good!
[audience cheering]
[King] Everybody thinks she's cute.
Well, let me tell you, you didn't have to play her.
[dramatic music playing]
[commentator 2] Chrissie puts it away.
[audience applauding]
The important news today is President Nixon's economic message
and the future of Japanese-American trade relations
and things like that.
But for a remarkable number of people, the important person is
a 16-year-old girl from Florida.
[people cheering, applauding]
[reporter 1] Now, I know you've got one major problem.
You have to be in class at 8:05 at St. Thomas Aquinas in the morning.
Uh… Do you think you're going to make it?
Oh, yeah, I'll make it, even if I'm half asleep.
[reporter 2] Chrissie, all week, everybody was talking
about the pressures on the little 16-year-old.
Tell us, did you really feel any pressure?
[Chris] No, I didn't feel any pressure at all.
I'm gonna be playing the best in the world,
so I have nothing to lose,
and they have everything to lose.
[reporter 3] Chrissie Evert has not lost a match since March.
[commentator 1] Well, Chris Evert, game, set, and match.
-You heard the call. -[applause]
But the professional women, they weren't that nice to her.
They were just like,
"We're killing ourselves."
"We spent six weeks with the Newsweek reporter."
"And they put her on the front cover."
And all the older women were not happy that I was getting the attention.
[children cheering]
[Chris] Nobody was talking to me when I'd walk in the locker room.
[Carillo] I think a lot of them deeply resented
not only the fact that she was this pretty, lovely package,
but that they were all getting beaten by her. [laughs]
That's the part that I think stung.
She was damn good.
She was proving it to them at a very young age.
"I belong here."
I was a couple years younger than Chrissie.
It was like, "My God, look at this girl."
She came around at a time where they really needed some fresh blood
and someone that would attract viewers.
You looked at her, "Wow, what a beautiful young woman."
So feminine, yet a killer on the court.
[dramatic music playing]
I was thrilled because I'm always worrying about the sport,
in that we need a superstar.
And I thought, "She's gonna be the one."
[music fades]
[reporter 1] In the last three years,
the number of people playing tennis has doubled to more than 20 million.
Chrissie has made it.
Uh, women's tennis is now the biggest thing.
[reporter 2] The Chrissie craze has begun.
[King] I told the women,
"We got started really well, but we need that second generation."
[upbeat music playing]
[King] They're smart. They got it.
In my heart, I knew we had our next superstar.
[commentator 1] That's the match. Chris Evert wins.
[commentator 2] Victory number 84 for Chris Evert.
[commentator 3] And so it's championship point for Miss Evert.
[audience cheering]
[commentator 3] And a triumphant Miss Evert wins the Wimbledon title.
[commentator 4] Chris Evert, the champion of 1974, and now seeded number one.
[music fades]
[Martina] Growing up, I had a subscription to the magazine World Tennis.
Chris Evert was in that magazine.
I thought it was so cool.
[solemn music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Martina] I grew up outside Prague.
Come on.
I started on the wall when I was five.
My dad says, "When you can hold the racket with one hand, then get back to me."
So for two years, I was here on the wall
and just entertained myself for hours on end,
hitting backhands against the wall.
We were at the tennis club the whole day.
On the weekends from morning till evenings.
We just went home for lunch.
It was our life.
And then finally, when I was seven,
this is the court that I hit my first balls on for real.
Over the net.
[Martina] My dad spent countless hours on the court with me.
Then it was a way to be with my father, and I loved it.
Russian tanks and infantry have occupied Czechoslovakia
and have crushed the new leadership of that small country.
[Martina] I was 12 years old when the Russians came in '68.
Everything changed on that day.
[dramatic music playing]
[Martina] Things became much more restricted.
But if you were an elite athlete,
you got automatic visa to wherever the competition was.
I knew tennis was my way of getting out of the country,
which gave me the incentive to work harder.
[Martina in Czech] I would like to achieve the best, which means winning Wimbledon.
[in English] And then I won the Czech Championships when I was 15,
and I won the senior championships.
That catapulted me to America to play the USLTA Tour,
which is where I met Chris for the first time.
[Chris] The first time I met Martina was at a tournament at a country club.
She was 15 years old.
[upbeat music playing]
[Chris] She walked over in the crowd
in a one-piece bathing suit and flip-flops.
Not in tennis clothes, not in a tracksuit, in a bathing suit.
She was unlike any teenage girl I'd ever met.
She was young and naive.
She's so real.
[Martina] When I came on the tour in '73,
my first impression of Chris was,
well, she was friendly enough to say hello because I was a nobody.
She was cool in a nice way.
But we were very different people.
Chris was very girly.
[Chris] I wore my hair in a ponytail with a ribbon, and I wore jewelry.
I wore ruffle bloomers and really pretty, feminine dresses.
[Martina] And I was such a tomboy.
[Chris] I saw the talent. I saw the tools that she had.
She had a big topspin forehand. She had a big serve.
She had wonderful volleys.
[King] If you could write up who you want for the second generation,
Chrissie and Martina are perfect.
You got somebody from Czechoslovakia and communism,
and you got this girl next door from Florida, sunshine.
One's left-handed. One's right-handed.
It's a contrast of styles.
Chrissie's a baseliner, excellent balance.
Between the ears, like a rock.
Martina is a brilliant serve volleyer, aggressive.
She's always going forward.
You know, she chips and charges.
[audience applauding]
[King] That's what attracts spectators. They absolutely love it.
[Martina] We would be in the locker room together a lot
and stayed in the same hotel, and so then we started hanging out more.
We played backgammon, and we played, um, Scrabble.
We just became really close friends.
I played her a few times, and she kicked my ass.
[commentator 1] Evert defeats her close friend Martina Navratilova.
[audience applauding]
[Chris] To be honest, in the beginning,
it was fine for me to be friends with her
because I was better than her.
She was emotional
and would be crying on the court and get down on herself,
and she wasn't fit.
You know, she wasn't in the best shape.
[commentator 2] Chris won the second. The championship could be hers.
-[commentator 3] That's it! -[commentator 2] There it is!
[audience applauding]
[Chris] As time went on, we started practicing with one another,
and after that, I played doubles with her.
[audience applauding]
[commentator 1] Well, Bill, we knew
that Chrissie and Martina were gonna be a good team,
but we quite frankly couldn't expect to have such an easy 6-1 opening set.
[King] It was interesting when they first started playing doubles together
to see how they started to have to deal with each other.
They both have strengths in different areas,
which can really make a huge positive difference.
[commentator 1] Chrissie providing the steadiness, Martina the power.
They're doing quite well.
There's a lot of camaraderie among the ladies.
-[Martina] All right! -[umpire] Game, set, and match.
Miss Evert and Miss Navratilova.
[Martina] I loved my American friends.
I just fell in love with everything Americana.
I fit right in.
I was a total Yankee.
In 1975, I got in trouble with the Czech Federation
because I was hanging out too much with the American players,
with Chris and Billie Jean and Rosie Casals.
They said, "Oh, you are too Americanized,
and you need to hang out with the Russian players more."
[woman] The Czech government cracked down on her.
She's threatened by officials saying,
"We're gonna get you in line and keep you in line."
[Martina] They were not gonna let me play the United States Open.
And that's when I thought, "Oh my God, if they let me out, I'm not coming back."
[commentator 1] West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills
has hosted the United States Open annually for over half a century.
[Martina] Before the US Open, I told my agent,
"I'm gonna defect after the tournament."
[Jenkins] Only three people know.
One of those people is Chris Evert.
And they have to play a match on the day that Martina is going to defect.
[audience gasping]
[audience cheering, applauding]
[commentator 1] There is but one way to become number one
in the world of women's tennis today.
You beat Chrissie Evert.
A close line call against the highly emotional Navratilova
has disrupted her concentration.
She's lost ten straight points,
and Evert is serving for the match.
[emotional music playing]
[umpire] Out. Game.
[audience applauding]
[Chris] I won that match, and she broke down and cried on the court.
[Chris] I knew the defection was gonna happen,
but I didn't know what it entailed.
Then she told me that she might not see her parents again ever.
[car horn blaring]
[Martina] The next day,
I went to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS, office
in New York.
I had to sign all these papers and swear that I was not a communist spy. [chuckles]
They said, "Okay, we approve you for a green card, and don't tell anybody."
The next day, the phone rings…
[phone ringing]
…and it's my chaperone.
She says, "Why did you do it?"
Oh my God, she knows.
I'm like, "How do you know?" She said, "It's in The Washington Post."
Somebody leaked it.
"Tennis player asks for asylum."
Bam.
[indistinct chattering]
Then all hell broke loose.
Hi.
[reporter 1] Why did you defect?
[exhales] Why did I decide to do this?
[reporter 1] Yeah.
Uh… Because I felt I didn't get enough opportunities
to play te-- as much tennis as I want under the Czech government.
I just felt that if I want to become number one,
which I want to,
that I couldn't do it under the circu-- the circumstances at home.
[reporter 2] Did you say goodbye to your family at that time?
[Martina] No.
[tense music playing]
[Jana] We first heard on the radio that she defected.
It was like, boom, like a hammer on your head.
Mom almost fainted and cried.
And I started to cry. It was like disaster.
The first reaction was,
"We will never see each other again. Oh, what poor Martina is gonna do there?"
Imagine something happens. She's alone there, nobody can help her.
This was… I think this was the worst thing.
She's left alone in this world.
I felt like I lost my sister.
[Martina] It was definitely the hardest on my mom.
No doubt about it. And my sister too.
I think because I was her big sister and protector
and shared everything with her.
She was still not even teenager, so 12.
I still feel guilty to this day.
They threatened me with two years in prison for defecting.
For a week I was kind of in hiding
in case the Czechs would try to decide to kidnap me and take me back.
And in fact, for a month, they were following me around.
My life was a mess.
I was just so different from everybody else.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Jenkins] I don't think anybody can fully understand Martina's experience
right after the defection in the first year.
When she's trying to learn English from I Love Lucy reruns.
She comes to the US Open a year later and is just a mess.
[microphone echoes]
[man] Martina just whacked our microphone.
-[woman] My ears noticed. -Yeah.
[Jenkins] As she put it, uh,
she was a… a walking candidate for a nervous breakdown.
[audience applauding, cheering]
[melancholy music playing]
[Martina] Being alone, that was the cost.
After the match,
other players would have their family, but my family couldn't be there.
The first tournament I ever won, I hugged a pole because I was alone.
[music fades]
[Martina] Come on in.
-Just pop it right here, please. -[server] Okay.
[Martina] My wife, Julia, was with me for my treatment from the beginning.
And I sent her home.
Okay.
I just need to be alone.
I need to save the energy for myself.
[cutlery clinking]
Chemo knocks you out.
[solemn music playing]
I was almost too tired to cry.
-[inhales] -[cutlery clinking]
I'm done with that,
but it's a shock to the system in every single way.
Emotionally, physically, mentally.
You get on with it, but it beats you up.
I got so excited when I could taste my first blueberry…
[dish clinking]
…because the taste buds got all messed up.
It's a strange feeling for an athlete to not be in control,
but the champion's mind, mentality really kicks in.
You take in all the variables, all the information, what's important,
and what do you need to do this second to deal with whatever is happening.
Makes it look like I have more hair than I actually have.
When you live with that kind of pressure,
you learn to put things into proper order of importance.
The goal is to get free of cancer.
Which way? This way.
And I'll find out after the scan in six months.
Ready to go, Lulu?
[music fades]
[commentator 1] Martina Navratilova formerly lived in Czechoslovakia
and is now a US resident.
Will Martina put her game together to beat Chris Evert?
[commentator 2] And I think she has an ace.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] In 1976, she was playing better.
And then it was like, nah,
she knows me too well.
She knows my game too well.
And I went to her and I said,
"I… I can't play doubles with you anymore." [inhales]
[tender music playing]
[Martina] That hurt.
This is where Chris and I are pretty different.
I can play somebody and then go to dinner afterwards,
win or lose.
But she had to pull away when we got too close
because she was only really close friends with players that could never beat her.
[Chris] We won two major Grand Slam doubles titles,
but I said, "I've gotta separate myself" because…
Hate to say this,
but it was more important for me to be number one
than to have great friends.
[Chris] This is an Andy Warhol.
[music fades]
It was, uh, done in s-- 1976.
I was number one in the world, um, at that time in tennis.
I was very focused.
I just was pretty tunnel-visioned about my tennis.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[commentator] It's championship point for Chrissie Evert.
[audience murmuring]
[commentator] That's it. Game, set, and match.
Chris Evert, still only 21, is Wimbledon champion again.
[Chris] I'm on the court, and I'm, like, holding the trophy up,
and I'm really feeling happy, and it's a great high for me.
[tender music playing]
Then I go back to my hotel room,
and I just felt like this weight,
and I lied down on the floor, and I couldn't get up.
It was depression.
And that was a self-realization that,
"Chrissie, you don't have any friends. That's why you're lying on the floor."
"It doesn't matter you won a Wimbledon trophy."
"If you don't have any friends, then you're not happy."
[female director] That was the Wimbledon that you decided
to stop playing with Martina.
So if you didn't have any friendships,
then why cut off this one that you did have?
[Chris] Um…
You… you give up things if you wanna be great at something.
You give up things.
Growing up, you know, it was all about tennis.
Friendship was never encouraged.
My dad had a shopping cart full of balls,
and he would just hit balls to me for an hour.
Now, let's just work on second balls for a while, okay?
A little more spin on that second ball than on the first.
Way up. Reach.
[Chris] I played tennis for my dad.
You know, I wanted to please him. I wanted to make him happy.
But I didn't like it very much.
I became really resentful.
[man 1] She lost out on a lot of her childhood.
She didn't have sleepovers.
She really didn't date in high school.
And I think as a result of her upbringing, Chrissie was more reserved.
[man 2] No one became number one in the world younger than Chris Evert.
She became "Chrissie" at a ridiculously young age.
There was no well-roundedness there.
[Chris] Having success at a very young age wasn't great
for emotional, mental growth.
And so I always felt like, I--
You know, "I wanna be isolated. I just wanna concentrate on my matches."
Now, when you play, you… you keep your concentration…
Yeah.
…by being very cool,
and you don't ever give any reaction to anything,
any overt reaction that we can see.
When I'm on the court, I'm-- You know, I'm doing a job. I'm out there to win.
I want to be number one.
[commentator 1] The Little Ice Woman, Chrissie Evert.
[commentator 2] Miss Evert,
who's often called "The Ice Maiden" in the press.
"The Ice Maiden" is fine with me.
I was that way on the court.
And I just held everything in and I didn't show emotion.
I liked being that way.
I used it to my advantage.
That worked for me.
But it was just
very lonely.
[man] You ready for this?
[inhales] You have to be, right?
[nurse] So how you doing today?
Um, about as well as can be expected.
Pharmacy's working on your medications right now.
-[Chris] Okay. -[nurse] Any pain?
[Chris] Andy, my former husband, takes me to my chemos.
[nurse] All right. Let's see.
[Chris] We were married for 20 years.
We had three kids.
There's a caring there that'll never go away.
Sometimes it takes terrible things to happen
for you to realize how you really feel about things.
-[nurse] You're gonna fall asleep after. -[Chris] I know, I know.
[Andy] You said something interesting about God this time.
[Chris] Spirituality is going to be, um, important now.
It-- I-- I kind of touched the surface last time,
but I feel like I can go further now.
How do you think about it?
[Chris] Just… Basically just
giving in to things you can't control
and not worrying about them
and kind of a-- allowing yourself to be free.
[Chris] I have had control over almost everything in my life
up until now.
When you're struck with cancer,
it just changes your perspective and your mindset on life.
[nurse] Yes, we have some warm…
[Chris] I just need to let go and let go of the control.
[Andy] I think she really opened her eyes
to what this whole thing called life is all about
because death is on the table.
The egos go away, and you're taken down to ground zero.
[reporter] Chris Evert turns 23 today,
and she summons the press to her home here in Fort Lauderdale.
Chris wanted to talk
about why she's not going to play on the Virginia Slim Circuit in 1978.
I decided that I definitely needed two or three months off.
I've never had more than three weeks off in tennis,
and I've just gone at such a fast pace the last four years or five years.
Physically, I was having injuries,
and mentally, I just wasn't with it every match.
And I just really decided that I did need a rest.
I needed to get eager again.
[audience cheering]
And I mean, I haven't lifted a tennis racket.
I've played three days in the last month, and that's a first for me, and I love it.
[tender music playing]
[Carillo] Playing that brand of tennis is gonna burn you out
if you're that good and you're playing that many matches.
[Chris] And I think because I'm not playing,
it's gonna force some of the younger players to play better.
You know, people like Martina are gonna start winning a lot of tournaments now.
[Jenkins] It takes a while
for Martina to regain her footing and competitive drive after defecting.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jenkins] When she does,
she goes on a real quest to the very top of the mountain.
[audience cheering]
[Martina] I wanted to be number one.
[commentator 1] Matt, Martina has lost a great deal of weight,
and she looks terrific and is moving very, very well.
[music continues]
[commentator 2] Martina Navratilova, the number two seed.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[inaudible]
[Martina] Chris Evert is coming back next week,
and I would not even know about it except the press keeps reminding me.
For the first time, this was an Evert-Navratilova world.
There was a battle that year over who was going to be number one.
[commentator 1] Martina Navratilova.
[commentator 2] Game, set, and match for Miss Evert.
[Martina] In '78, I had beaten everybody in the world at that point.
[audience applauding]
[commentator 3] Martina has not really been tested as yet.
[umpire] Game, set, match, Navratilova.
[Martina] So I knew I had it in me to beat her.
[tense music playing]
[Chris] I knew I had a target on my back.
[Flink] There were different schools of thought
on who was number one in the world,
so really, it came down to Wimbledon.
[music fades]
[Flink] This was either gonna be
a magnificent breakthrough moment for Navratilova
to get her first major and maybe change the nature of the rivalry some,
or if Chris wins it,
maybe she goes on dominating Martina for some time to come.
[tense music playing]
[audience applauding]
[commentator 1] As we look at Chris Evert, who's seeded number one,
she's rightly enjoyed it for the last four years.
And her opponent,
Martina Navratilova.
[commentator 2] I think most people hoped and longed to see this clash
of the two currently dominant women in tennis.
Advantage, Miss Navratilova.
-Who was coaching you during this match? -I didn't have a coach.
[Chris laughs]
[umpire] Miss Evert to serve.
[commentator 1] So here we go.
[tense music continues]
[audience exclaiming, applauding]
[Martina] I had such a swagger.
You definitely had a swagger. That was intimidating.
[audience applauding]
[audience exclaiming]
[commentator 2] She missed the ball completely,
something I don't remember seeing.
[commentator 1] Certainly the Czech girl really has to find her game.
[audience applauding]
[Chris] No, you're shaking your head "no." That's what I didn't like.
Yeah, I was shaking it at me, not at you.
[female commentator 1] So Chris putting the pressure on Martina.
[Martina exhales] I'm getting nervous even though we know what happened.
[Chris] Yeah.
[audience applauding]
-Yeah! -[audience applauding over speaker]
[Jenkins] Chrissie is leading the match, and you think,
"Well, you know, this thing's gonna go the way it always goes."
"Martina's gonna give her a little trouble,
but Chrissie's really handling her, and she's gonna win the match."
[commentator 1] Yes.
[Jenkins] Because she's Chris Evert.
And Martina advances to the net.
[audience groaning, applauding]
[umpire]15-40.
[audience laughing]
[audience applauding]
You know, it's a little patronizing.
It's a sweet gesture, but it's also, like, you know, very unthreatened.
And something about that shot hitting her in the head
seems to shake something loose in Martina.
[Chris] It sure did.
You were a different player after that.
[line umpire] Out.
[umpire] First game, final set.
[commentator 2] Chris Evert is nervous.
[commentator 1] Yes.
[audience cheering]
You dominate.
[audience gasping]
[audience cheering, applauding]
[umpire] 40-love.
[female commentator 1] Miss Navratilova serving for the match.
6-5 up, third set.
[tense rhythm playing]
[Martina] You can hear your heart beating.
You hear yourself breathing.
Everything's magnified, like, a hundred times.
And time stands still, and it's too fast at the same time.
You could hear a pin drop.
[metallic clink]
[umpire] Quiet, please.
[commentator 1] That's it! She's done it!
[audience cheering]
[commentator 1] The champion.
[umpire] Game, set, and match to Miss Navratilova.
-[Martina] You were so sweet. -[Chris] Aw, it was your first time.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[tender music playing]
[Martina] That's the purest joy
that I think I ever felt on a court was that match.
-Because it was such a lifelong dream. -[Chris] It was your goal.
[applause over speakers]
[Chris] What are you thinking right now?
I'm crying because my parents weren't there, not because I won.
-[Chris] Oh! -[commentator 1 over speaker] Miss Evert.
[audience applauding]
[female commentator 2] Chrissie Evert,
the highest money winner in the history of women's tennis
but now the number two-ranked player in the world.
And Martina Navratilova, currently number one in the world.
[Martina] I've done what I've always wanted to do, to win Wimbledon,
and with that, right now I'm number one tennis player in the world,
and, um, right now I'm just gonna try to maintain it.
It's-- It's not gonna be easy because now I'm the champion,
and every g-- everybody's gonna try twice as hard to beat me,
but, um, I'm just so happy right now that I can, uh, take on anybody. [laughs]
[emotional music playing]
[Chris] My younger sister Jeannie died from ovarian cancer.
It spread so quickly.
By the time she was diagnosed, she was already stage four.
It spread to every other organ in her body.
It was so painful to watch.
Two years later, the geneticist calls saying,
"Go get testing."
I had the same gene.
I was diagnosed with stage one.
My doctor said, "If you hadn't found it, you would have been stage three or four."
She had to die from this insidious cancer
to give me the chance to have the life that I have now.
[Martina] When Chris told me
she was gonna have a breast mastectomy because of the BRCA gene…
I started crying…
not knowing that I had cancer at that moment.
When I found the lump on my throat, I go in for a CT scan.
I found out I had breast cancer as well as throat cancer.
Every scan, it's terrifying.
-[Alex] You ready for this? -Yeah.
[hair clippers buzzing]
[emotional music continues]
[Chris] The second time really hit home
how precious every moment is…
how precious life is.
[exhales deeply]
I wanna be around forever for my kids.
[music fades]
[reporter] All right, Martina, now you are hotter than a pistol right now.
People are saying you're number one.
People are saying you've dislodged Chris from number one woman player in the world.
You came out… Oh!
-Dropped the racket right on her foot. -Don't hurt me!
Now, Chris, why did you drop the racket on Martina's foot?
Right on my bad toe, yeah.
-On your bad toe. I see. -[both laughing]
[reporter] That's what-- Tell me about…
On the road to being number one is great.
You know, sort of that climb up the ladder.
That is extremely exciting.
It's when you get there, now the expectations are a lot higher.
You're expected to win all the time.
It gets more difficult.
[journalist 1] Martina was number one, but then her game declined.
The troubled personal life affecting her concentration,
her dedication, her play.
[solemn music playing]
[Chris] The one thing I could always count on in the early years was
Martina not having the killer instinct.
She even used to admit that she loved to play her friends
because when she won, she was happy, and when she lost, she was happy.
I'm like, whoa. [laughs]
That's not how I feel.
I played Martina at Amelia Island.
[commentator] Forty-first meeting of these women.
Chris Evert Lloyd leads in the rivalry, 27-13.
[Chris] I was handling her pretty well and beating her.
[commentator] Ooh, Evert Lloyd!
[audience applauding]
[woman] I think Martina has always had it within her reach
to be number one in the world.
But I think that she doesn't quite knuckle down
and use the talent that she has.
-[umpire] Out! -[commentator] There you go.
I beat her 6-love, 6-love.
[commentator] Chris Evert Lloyd.
[Chris] Didn't get a game. She didn't get a game.
[commentator] Seventeen straight matches
during this undefeated 1981 season for her.
Six-love, six-love.
[Martina] I met Nancy Lieberman that weekend.
She's like, "You're not working hard." I'm like, "What are you talking about?"
She says, "You could train much harder." I'm like, "What do you mean?"
She took me on these basketball drills,
and that's when I realized, "Oh my God, I could be in so much better shape."
I know what it takes to be on top and to be number one,
and Martina was just not giving her all that she could in tennis.
[Lieberman] You-- You're gonna have to hit a lot more than that, Wonder Woman.
[journalist 1] Basketball star Nancy Lieberman
is usually at her side.
-[Martina] Like that? -Keep it out in front. It's too close.
[Carillo] Nancy was this rough-and-tumble New Yorker basketball player.
She's… she's throwing elbows, hip checks.
That's who she was.
[journalist 2] Nancy Lieberman, 23 years old, born in Brooklyn,
a master at boiling lobsters, an act that makes Martina cry.
[Chris] Nancy Lieberman got mad at her and just yelled at her,
"You're better. Every area of your game, you're better than she is."
"She's not the athlete you are. She doesn't move like you do."
"She doesn't have the shotmaking you do."
[Martina] Nancy said, "She has what you want."
"You need to not be friends with her. You need to kick her ass."
And when I'm doing the weights, I'm thinking about Chris.
When I'm doing the drills,
I'm thinking about Chris because I got everybody else covered.
She was my carrot. She was the one that I needed to beat.
[frenetic music playing]
[Carillo] She realized,
"I've got to get thinner. I've got to get fitter."
"I've got to eat better. I've got to train harder."
She did every possible thing she could to live up to her talent.
Every possible thing.
But Nancy wasn't very nice about me and to me to Martina,
and she kind of brainwashed Martina into, um, thinking that I was the enemy.
Well, she was.
Chris was the enemy 'cause she was number one and I was number two.
And she's the one that I had to beat to get to number one.
[Chris] She would say, "You can't be friends with Chrissie."
"You need to hate her."
She complains about Nancy making Chris the enemy
when she couldn't be friends with me.
[Chris] Five months later,
she had transformed into a completely different player.
She was lean.
She was streamlined.
She was ripped.
She was fit, cardio was great, shotmaking was great.
But Martina wasn't talking to me.
[tense music playing]
The rivalry switched over because Martina had gotten so much better.
And the friendship was deeply damaged.
And Nancy assumes all the blame.
She wanted that to happen.
That was the goal, and Martina agreed with it.
I think I was influenced too much by my girlfriends.
I didn't know exactly how to deal with it,
but I knew that I needed to be a little more
of a killer instinct.
Maybe I just took it too far.
[Jenkins] And now Martina is the one who starts to hurt Chrissie.
And she starts to hurt her on the court.
And she starts to hurt her in the locker room
in the way that she treats her.
They do some damage to each other emotionally.
You can see it in their faces on the court.
Chrissie hates Martina's body language.
And you can see in Martina's face the fury
when she thinks she might be letting a match get away to Chrissie.
[Martina] She just does everything very well. She doesn't do anything great.
[journalist 1] 1982 is a champagne season for Martina Navratilova.
Ranked number one in the world, she has won 37 matches in a row,
including Wimbledon, and is not lacking in confidence.
[journalist 2] After Wimbledon, Martina was quoted as saying
that she wanted to be known as the best women's tennis player in the world,
which prompted Chris Evert Lloyd to hit the roof.
"What an insult to Billie Jean and me," Chris said,
"who have each had careers that were ten times better than hers."
Everybody would always ask the players about me,
and now everyone's asking me about her.
[Martina] I think maybe she feels that I'm getting a lot of attention.
There's always jealousy at the top.
[audience applauding]
[journalist 2] Are you a better player than Chrissie?
[Martina] I think so.
She probably would get in an argument with me about that,
but I think at my best, I'm better than she is at her best.
[music fades]
When we were left alone in the locker room during those tense, icy years,
we would be very quiet towards each other.
You know, there wouldn't-- We just wouldn't talk to each other.
She would be on one side, and I would be on… on the other.
[commentator 1] First serve…
[Chris] It was the lowest of lows in our relationship.
[umpire] Quiet, please.
[woman] I came in kind of in the middle.
I definitely remember
Martina and Chrissie being very tense around each other.
[tense music playing]
[Garrison] And the media was definitely portraying them
in a way so they can actually fill the seats.
To have those two, the princess against the strong one,
you couldn't ask for a better script.
[Jenkins] It put women's finals between Chris and Martina on the must-see list.
[female journalist 1] Martina won the US Open here in New York.
A week ago, Martina beat Chris again
in the finals of the Australian Open.
Chris, of course, had beaten Martina a week earlier in yet another final.
They were huge.
People were covering women's tennis. Didn't matter what tournament.
You know, the media decides what to make of you, really,
and they loved it.
[McEnroe] That was the first real rivalry
that sparked that type of interest
and gave legitimacy to the… the women's game.
My first guest is one of the greatest tennis players in the world,
Chrissie Evert.
[audience applauding]
But Chrissie was a huge celebrity way past tennis.
Chris Evert.
Miss Chris Evert.
[audience applauding]
I mean, Chrissie was embraced immediately.
[reporter] What about this welcome here tonight?
[Chris] Oh, I'm really excited.
I really didn't expect this big of a turnout,
and I was kind of shocked to see the band and everyone here.
[Kain] She's got a great off-court story in a romance with Jimmy Connors.
[Jenkins] She's with great tennis players and superstar actors.
[Kain] Then she married John Lloyd, who was a great-looking guy.
Chrissie was becoming bigger and bigger, and it wasn't just sports page stuff.
She started getting endorsement income that was similar to the men.
Mm. That's why I love this Lipton iced tea mix.
[Chris] Tricot Mesh from Band-Aid brand because it fits like your skin.
It stays on better, and not just for tennis.
[female journalist 2] How much money have you made?
[Chris] Well, that's a blunt question.
[laughs]
My tennis earnings, which is about seven million,
a little over seven million dollars.
In endorsements, I've made that much, if not more.
[Carillo] Chrissie was a good story.
You know, the patriarchy likes this.
There's no threat.
[Martina] The press, they did not treat me the same way.
[tense music playing]
[Martina] I was under a different microscope.
I was the, you know, "communist" girl that lives in Beverly Hills.
You know, they exaggerated everything.
[Lieberman] If I left my country,
went somewhere where I didn't know anybody,
trusted people, got burned by friends, got burned by the newspapers,
you'd have an inferiority complex yourself.
[music continues]
[Martina] And I had a hang-up about my body and my looks,
my veins, muscles, and strong face.
I wanted to not be judged
for something that shouldn't be judged.
[reporter 1] She has helped the local economy of late,
paying $34,000 to a local automobile dealer
for a new Porsche.
[Jenkins] The American media portrays Martina as voracious,
can't get enough jewelry,
can't get enough fast cars, can't get enough Americanism.
And then there becomes lots of fixation on her life off the court.
[photographer] Martina!
[reporter 2] There have been stories about lesbianism
on the women's tennis circuit,
and Martina has been the focus of some of those stories.
[Martina] Over the years, the press would ask me if I was gay,
or they would ask if there were lesbians on the tour.
And at the time, I was in a relationship with Nancy Lieberman,
who was in the closet and who couldn't come out,
so we were pretending we were just friends,
and I was protecting the tour.
I'm playing tennis right now.
[reporter 3] The only thing you're concerned about.
That's the only thing I'm concerned about, talking about.
[Jenkins] There's a New York Times article from around the period that declares
that homosexuality in sports is a more controversial issue
than drugs or crime.
And the tennis tour sponsors have become very, very nervous
by the specter of homosexuality on the women's tennis tour.
[woman] It was an awkward time.
There were kind of messy, headline-grabbing media outlets
that wanted to have more information.
Everybody on tour knew Martina had girlfriends
and identified as gay.
It wasn't a big deal, but it was a big deal
to come out publicly.
[Martina] Actually, I didn't decide.
It was decided for me by a… by a journalist
who, uh, had wanted to talk about my sexuality.
I just didn't think it was anybody's business to talk about who you love.
Steve Goldstein, who wrote for the New York Daily News,
claimed that I okayed it.
I never okayed it to write this story about my sexuality.
And also, I didn't come out as bisexual.
I was gay, but it was more acceptable to be bisexual than being gay.
Bisexual, that was always our kind of…
backup thing.
In 1981, I was outed also.
People have no idea what it was like. It was terrible.
They do not ask male athletes,
who they know that are gay, they do not ask them that question,
but women athletes are a prime target for that question.
[Jenkins] There becomes this real obsession with,
"Who's Martina with now?"
One of the ways she dealt with it was by putting them in her box
so that the tabloids wanted a picture,
they could just go out to center court and take the picture.
[audience applauding]
[Jenkins] Martina dealt with the outness by being even more out.
[reporter 1] An overjoyed Martina Navratilova
going into the stands to celebrate with her good friend Judy Nelson.
Martina had a lot of girlfriends. [laughs]
More than your average.
A lot of girlfriends.
[Chris] Did you ever live alone?
I was single there for a couple of years here and there,
but overall, um, I was with somebody.
I-- You know, I did not like to be alone. I didn't have family to come home to.
-[Chris] Right. -So maybe that's why I was more dependent
on the… on the girlfriend to getting that love and support and… and "home."
I didn't have kids, I didn't get married. You couldn't get married.
You didn't care what anybody thought, and, um, I admired that very, very much.
Because I could speak whatever I wanted.
There were no sponsors that could tell me, "No, you can't say that."
And I just remember my agent telling me
when he was at-- with Madison Avenue with the advertisers,
and they were talking, pitching… pitching ideas.
And they're pitching ideas for you, and they would be like,
"Yes, this and this and this."
And when he said, "How… how about Martina doing this?"
And the room was just silent.
I was maybe jealous or envious of that, uh, but I couldn't change who I was.
On-- On the-- On the court is one thing, but off the court is popularity
because you were the perfect girl next door.
That's how they were talking about you.
The girl next door, the girl that you want your son to marry.
They certainly didn't write that about me.
So I think I just gave up at the end of the day.
[indistinct chatter]
[Martina] But I'm like, "Oh, I'm just gonna let my racket do the talking."
[dramatic music playing]
[commentator] Game.
[audience cheering]
[commentator] The number one. Martina Navratilova.
[broadcaster 1] Martina Navratilova on a roll.
Just looked overpowering…
[broadcaster 2] Martina Navratilova required just 50 minutes today
to crush Bettina Bunge.
She destroyed Beverly Mould 6-1, 6-1.
[broadcaster 3] Overwhelmed Andrea Jaeger.
When Martina Navratilova is at the top of her game, forget it.
[Jenkins] People were used to seeing ladylike women
in these dresses like pinafores, you know,
hitting long rallies from the baseline, and here comes Martina.
It's like, slash, slash, mark of Zorro, you're out.
[audience applauding]
[umpire] Game.
[audience applauding]
[commentator 1] Martina has won 19 straight matches this year
and four straight tournaments.
[Garrison] Martina was overtaking everybody.
As a player, you're trying to get
as many games as you can get because you don't wanna be embarrassed.
[commentator 2] That's it.
[umpire] Game.
[audience applauding]
[reporter] Is it different, Chris, being the hunter rather than the hunted?
I've been in both positions.
I mean, a thousand women are hunting me, and I'm hunting one woman.
[commentator 1] She proves again that she is number one.
[reporter] She has now won 49 straight matches.
Some say she's bad for women's tennis. Martina says no.
Well, I think that's a bunch of baloney because the players know
that they have to get better to catch up,
so it's gonna do nothing but raise the level of women's tennis.
[Jenkins] I mean, at her peak, Chrissie has trouble
taking a couple of games off her in a set.
It was so abbreviating, this style of play.
[dramatic music continues]
[Chris] She did everything better than I did.
She's beating me on clay then. That was my surface I always beat her on.
I had no chance to beat her on any surface if I can't beat her on clay.
[commentator 1] Martina Navratilova.
[Martina] I've won everything at least once, but the problem is
on-- once you win it once, you wanna win it again.
I try the best that I can every time I go on the court,
but I know that I still haven't reached my potential,
so that's what I'm aiming for.
[music fades]
[audience cheering]
[commentator 2] So a tremendous victory for Martina.
And a great hand for Chris Lloyd.
Played beautifully today, but playing against a girl who I think,
arguably, might be considered the best lady player we've ever seen.
[audience applauding]
[applause fades]
[commentator] Well, you heard…
[Garrison] Chris being the princess, being the darling, losing the shine
in the midst of the moment…
Everyone's looking at you.
You know, that's a lot of pressure.
[tense music playing]
[Chris] She'd taken over the tennis world.
Nobody could beat her.
She had an answer for everything.
By the summer of 1984, I was the underdog.
[audience applauding, cheering]
[Flink] '84 US Open final
on that famous Super Saturday, September 8, 1984,
may be the greatest day in tennis history.
The atmosphere was very highly charged.
Well, we're gonna look at
Chris Evert Lloyd take on Martina Navratilova
for the 61st time in just a minute.
[commentator 2] I think it's gonna be different from a year ago.
Martina won easily.
Chris, on the other hand, this year she is trying to close the gap again.
[Chris] I felt like I was right there with her, right there,
and hard courts, the US Open, were going to favor my game
maybe a little, a touch more than her game.
[tense music continues]
[commentator 1] Here we go. Chris Evert Lloyd to serve.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[commentator 2] Best first serve and the best second serve.
[commentator 1] I agree.
-[audience gasping] -[commentator 1] Ooh.
[audience cheering]
[commentator 3] I think Chris is moving as well as I've ever seen her move.
[audience cheering, applauding]
She played so damn aggressively to take the opening set,
and the joint was going nuts.
[cheering loudly]
[King] Game and first set, Evert Lloyd, 6-4.
[Jenkins] Chris gets the single greatest ovation she ever got
because people think they're gonna see Chris Evert's comeback complete that day.
[music swells]
[audience cheering]
[cheering loudly]
Chris seems really delicate and all this, like…
When you see this little fist go, you better watch out.
[audience cheering]
[audience roaring]
[Martina] The crowd was against me like crazy. They want me to lose.
[audience cheering]
[Martina] I don't know how much of it had to do with me being gay
or being from a communist country, not being "real American."
[commentator 1] The umpire asking for quiet.
[Kain] They rooted for Martina when she played other people.
They weren't gonna root for her against Chrissie. That is a given.
[tense music playing]
[McEnroe] To be able to play to your best
when the going gets tough and the tension is at its highest…
[audience cheering]
But I feel like Martina had to deal with it
more than almost any other player.
[umpire] Thirty all.
[audience applauding]
[commentator 1] Martina's gonna get herself in trouble with this crowd
if she keeps mimicking and begging 'em for applause and stuff.
[Martina] It was the hardest match I think I ever had to play.
You know, I'm American. I'm a good person.
And you guys are hating on me.
[Chris] They had grown up with me.
You know, these were New York fans that I saw since I'd been 16 years old.
I was kind of their Chrissie,
and in their minds,
Martina was like a bully.
[tense music playing]
-[umpire] Game, Navratilova. -[commentator] Rolled through that game.
They were on a knife blade, and it was gonna be who took the risk.
[commentator 2] If Martina starts getting ignited, she's ready to roll.
[commentator 1] That's just too good.
[audience groaning]
[umpire] Game and second set…
Martina, she got on with it.
[line umpire] Out!
[audience exclaiming]
[commentator 1] She's said one more game.
[commentator 2] She's saying four more points.
[audience applauding]
-[umpire] 40-15. -[commentator 3] Double match point.
[commentator 1] Couldn't get more dramatic than this.
[music fades]
[audience cheering]
[commentator 1] Just can't get to it.
Martina Navratilova.
[photographer] Sorry.
[Martina yells]
[commentator 1] That, of course, is Martina's coach, Mike Estep.
Those are tears of joy.
[audience applauding]
They were not tears of joy. They were tears of relief.
And sadness.
It's kind of hard to sound sane at this moment, so just thanks, everybody.
Thank you, Mike, and all the people over there in the box.
They were cheering, and thank you all. Thanks.
[audience applauding]
[male fan] Yeah, Chrissie, we love you!
[audience cheering loudly]
[solemn music playing]
[applause fades]
I was devastated when I lost that match.
At that point, I recognized that she's a better tennis player than me now.
I always knew she was a better athlete, but now she's a better tennis player.
[audience applauding]
[Martina] I was relieved that I won,
and I was sad that the crowd was so much against me.
It was hard to not take it personally.
Being an athlete, when you're at the top, you are alone.
Psychologists can tell you how to deal with pressure,
but they've never been there.
Only top champions understand.
[music fades]
[Martina] Hello!
[Chris cheerfully] Hi, Lulu!
How are you?
Come right in, Lulu. Make yourself at home.
-COVID test. Negative. -Thank you. That was very…
-How are you? -Hi.
[both] Mmm.
[Martina] I think I'm better than you are.
-You bring--? You brought food. -Julia made soup again.
-Your hair's getting long. -I always thought I had shitty hair.
Then when I see pictures of me when I was, like, 30,
I'm like, "Oh my God, I had so much hair." [laughs]
Is your nausea gone?
Fatigue is like,
okay, my body is not my own right now.
-Right. -And I feel like I c--
I feel like it-- I don't have control over it.
I was watching some of the tennis on TV, and these young athletes,
they're so fit,
and they're so strong,
and they have so much energy, and they're sweating and… [inhales]
-That was us! [laughs] -That was us, yeah.
-But I'm like-- -But it's not now!
I know.
[Chris] Have you started to play tennis yet?
-[Martina] It's not on my bucket list. -Bucket list. No, I know. I know.
Um, right now on the bucket list, it's walking.
-[Martina chuckles] -It's just walking.
I mean, I remember skiing with you. [laughs]
We've gotta do that.
That is on my bucket list, to go skiing with you one more time.
Well, you're gonna have to go like five miles an hour…
-That's okay. -…to keep up with me.
-Just-- -We should do another SNL skit about…
-I mean-- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. -…how competitive we are. [laughs]
You took the sissy way up. I climbed up right through the middle.
[audience laughing]
-Listen, Martina, I think we have to talk. -You can't psych me out, Chris.
Look, I don't wanna psych you out. I came here to get away from that.
You're never gonna beat me with this attitude.
[mocking] "This is not the competition I signed up for."
[both laughing]
"I lost my hair."
"I lost my hair too."
-[Martina laughs] -"I'm… nauseous."
"I lost 20 pounds."
-"I lost 30!" -"I lost 30!"
[both laughing]
Emotionally, is it worse for you now knowing what's coming
because you've been there before?
You've got to play games with your mind.
Like, "The next one's the third one. I'm halfway there after the third one."
Yeah.
I was counting all the time. Five down, 30 to go.
Six down, 29 to go.
I was literally counting down every single time.
So you have to because it's a goal.
-We're so goal-oriented. -Yeah.
I think you have to see the end of the road.
-[Martina] Okay. So… -[Chris] All right. Come here.
-You'll be all right. -[Chris exhales loudly]
[Chris] Oh, it's so pretty today.
[inhales]
Bye, superstar.
[Chris] Adios, amiga.
-I mean, I… I'm complaining about… -Both you guys.
…feeling awful for three days out of three weeks,
and she had 35 days where she was nauseous and had headaches.
Was it?
She had 35 days. Oh my God. I just… [inhales]
My eyes are more open than ever.
Just so inspiring to me.
And… and thinking about her journey with cancer
really helps me with my journey.
[host] Somebody said this,
and I-- I really should've looked up the quote 'cause I just love it.
But "sometimes the worst thing to be in America is second best in the world."
Do you-- Do you find that to be the case?
Or are you fairly comfortable with… with being second best in the world?
Well, I… I have to be comfortable with it
because I've been number two for three years now.
It had been pretty tumultuous off-court for Chrissie.
She had separated from John Lloyd, and that marriage was over.
[tender music playing]
[Chris] My happiness was based on if I won or lost that particular day.
I just didn't have enough left over for him.
I wasn't about to sacrifice my career to remain in a marriage.
Everything comes with a price, and I wanted to win.
But deep in my heart, with Martina playing the way she was,
I didn't know if I could win another major.
[Carillo] Martina had so dominated her for a couple of years.
A couple of years. [laughs]
At a certain point, don't you think, "All right, you know what?"
"This chick is really good." You know? "Maybe I-- Maybe I can't do it anymore."
Chrissie really realized she had to look in the mirror and say,
"Well, what can I do to try and thwart this runaway train that was Martina?"
Now, not everyone can have a body like this.
In fact, I'm told some women and some men would give their arms
to have these legs.
[Jenkins] Martina is like 7% body fat,
is working out four hours a day, cross-training.
Let's get to work on these gorgeous bodies of ours.
And Chrissie, in order to catch her, has to do the same.
It's not enough anymore just to practice three or four hours a day
on the tennis court.
[McEnroe] Chrissie had to do more
and get better and try different things,
try to adapt her game.
[upbeat music playing]
[Shriver] She figured out how to get stronger, how to get faster,
how to bring net play more.
[Chris] I did everything that she did
with the exception,
her weight was 35 pounds, and my weight was 15 pounds.
My coach at the time was telling me, "You gotta go to the net."
"You're just playing your game, and she's beating you."
"You've got to change something."
How do you look forward to playing Martina again?
Every time I practice, in the back of my mind,
I'll be practicing shots that hopefully I'll use against her.
[music continues]
[commentator 1] The championship of the French Open.
Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert Lloyd.
This will be the 65th time they've met in their careers.
[commentator 2] This rivalry just goes on and on.
Thirteen years, it's extraordinary.
And the margin is narrower than my girlfriend's mind.
-Wow! -What?!
[commentator 2] …31 for Navratilova.
[audience applauding]
I always felt like you were giving me dirty looks across the net,
but I know you-- I know you say you weren't.
It's so not that.
[commentator 2] The first game is important. So important.
[commentator 1] That's wide.
[female commentator] Martina is playing it very safe,
whereas Chris is going for the lines, which is a role reversal.
[audience cheering]
I was feeling more and more confident coming into the net,
and I wanted to take that game away from you.
[audience cheering]
[Martina] Good shot.
[Chris] Oh my gosh!
[Martina] Look, did you see that bounce? Oh my God!
[both laughing]
[commentator 1] Backhand!
That was a hell of a backhand.
[music continues]
[audience cheering]
[Martina laughs]
What a game.
[commentator 1] Match point, Chris Evert Lloyd.
[Chris] Okay, here we go.
This is important. Be quiet.
[audience cheering]
Yes!
[epic music playing]
[audience cheering]
[Chris] That's the most emotional I've ever been in winning a match.
Nobody thought I'd win a major again.
I kept hearing that over and over, I was over the hill.
-It gets tiring. -And I just…
-Yeah. -I worked hard, and I still had it.
That was probably one of the toughest matches
I think that I've ever had to play,
and I'd like to just say something to Martina.
She really was a great sport out there,
and she's still number one and a great champion,
so that makes it that much more thrilling for me to beat her.
[Shriver] To see those two push each other to get better
and make sacrifices
so that they could try and have another win over the other person.
It was painful
because it shut a lot of us out of winning majors,
but it was also beautiful to watch.
[Jenkins] The verdict seemed almost in
that Chris Evert was gonna go down as kind of great, but less than Martina.
For Chris Evert to come back and win the '85 French Open,
and by the end of the year,
she regains the number one ranking briefly,
and then to come back and win another French Open in '86,
it really completed her.
[commentator 1] Well, they call it the greatest rivalry in women's tennis.
Some people feel it's even more than that.
[music fades]
[birds chirping]
[Chris] Now I have to take this for the CAT scan.
[chuckles]
Go for it.
That's disgusting.
-[turn signal ticking] -[engine whirring]
[Chris exhales deeply]
[Chris] I think that I had a lot more discipline in my career
than I did in my personal life.
[tender music playing]
I mean, I've been married and divorced three times.
I learned a lot of hard lessons.
And when you've had cancer, you rethink your priorities,
and my priorities are my three boys and my grandson.
People are my priority.
You're gonna do great.
-[nurse 1] Christine Evert. -[Chris] Oh.
It kills me to hear my name.
-Good luck. -Okay.
[nurse 2] Much better. 148 over 81, okay?
Do you have any treatment today? Any IV, injections, or just…?
Yeah, I'm doing a PET scan.
I guess I'm more nervous than I thought I was.
[nurse 2] Okay, Martina.
This is when I wish I had Martina Navratilova's veins
because they just pop.
I'm so jealous.
-[nurse 3] We need one more. -[Chris] We still have to do one more?
-Yeah. -[Chris] Shoot.
One more.
[nurse 2] So once I'm done placing this IV, I'm gonna step out.
I'm gonna let one of the techs know that you are ready.
They'll come and do the injection.
You'll sit in here for about an hour.
-Can I go out there or do I stay here? -No, because you're radioactive, so…
Oh. [splutters]
[solemn music playing]
[Martina] Since cancer, I've just kind of cut the riffraff out.
I'd rather be alone
than with people that I don't wanna be with.
You pick your spots much more carefully because you realize how precious time is.
You're gonna lie down on your back
with your head placed right over here and your bottom placed right over here.
-Okay, I have no jewelry on, right? -[technician] Perfect. Yes.
-You know what? I'll just take this off. -You want to take off the hat. Okay.
This is kind of burdensome.
-[technician] Okay. -There we go.
[Chris] I'm having a CT scan of my pelvic area and my chest area
to see if there's any cancer there.
[CT scanner whirring]
Right now, I'm, like, a little bit stressed.
A lot going on.
I think anticipation and waiting for that phone call.
Hopefully it's good news. That's all I can say.
[CT scanner beeps]
[technician] All right, I'm gonna start that injection of the contrast.
Remember, warm flush feeling going through your body is normal.
Lie there.
Actually, I'll take my shoes off.
[Martina] The test is to see if the tumor is gone from my throat.
The wait till you get the answer, one way or the other,
every second is-- feels like an eternity…
till you get the A-OK.
[anchor] Martina Navratilova is a very famous Czechoslovakian athlete
who defected from the Soviet Bloc and has now gone home for a visit.
She has gone back to Czechoslovakia to play tennis for America.
[reporter] For the Federation Cup, the international women's competition
that had moved the Czech government to grant the expatriate a visa.
[Martina] By 1980, I had seen my parents outside of the country.
But I had not been back to Czechoslovakia since '75.
And I wasn't planning on going back ever because it was still a communist country.
But this was a great opportunity once I got my American citizenship.
[Chris] Martina calls me and says,
"I'm hoping you can go to Prague and represent the Fed Cup team with me."
[Martina] I knew it would be special, and I wanted Chris to be a part of it.
I wanted to share it with her.
[tender music playing]
[Martina] The last chapter of my life,
I've been able to close by coming back here.
That was the one unfinished chapter
that I've been waiting for 11 years to complete.
[Chris] I went into her home,
and her mother made dumpling dinner.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Chris] And I saw the way she was with her mom and she was with her dad.
I saw her kindness to people.
I understood for the first time the impact that she had on people
and how much they loved her.
I saw the humanity in Martina, and I saw the vulnerability.
It was the most unbelievable trip of my life.
You know, I think my feelings changed about her after that.
[Martina] Chris, as hard as she seems on the outside,
she's really soft on the inside.
And she still lets you in up to a point.
She has a wall there, but that wall got smaller and smaller.
[tender music continues]
[Chris] Finally, everything dropped.
All the pretenses and all the ego dropped,
and we became genuine and authentic with each other
and didn't affect our performance on the court.
But it took a long time to get there.
Is it 14 years
that it was either you or Martina that were number one?
We had seven years each.
It-- It's been a great rivalry. I mean, we pushed each other to our limits.
And I probably would've retired a long time ago if it wasn't for Martina.
She kept me in the game as long as I was.
[audience applauding]
[Martina] We became a better tennis player
because we had each other to push each other.
[audience cheering]
[Jenkins] Chrissie armored up early
and has been taking her armor off steadily over the years.
-[player] Okay, guys! -Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
[Jenkins] Martina came into public life very, very vulnerable
and very, very exposed
and has been armoring up ever since.
And they're just going like this,
but where they meet, I think there's real understanding between them
because they both understand those paths.
I think they genuinely were cheering for each other…
especially towards the end of their careers.
You're fighting age.
You're fighting the mortality of your career.
They both were.
They knew just where each other was.
[audience applauding]
[reporter] Chris Evert has decided there is more to life than tennis.
[Chris] I have a great husband. I have a great life now.
I mean, there could be a lot worse things happening in my life than retirement.
[journalist 1] If you were a little girl and you loved tennis,
you wanted to be Chris Evert.
Thirteen years straight, she won at least one Grand Slam tournament.
[journalist 2] She won the US Open title six times, Wimbledon three times,
and the French Open seven times,
and she had a career total of 157 singles championships.
That is more than any other player in history.
[people cheering]
[Martina] A big part of my tennis was gone with Chris leaving.
The locker room was empty without her.
[commentator] Game, set, and match, Miss Navratilova.
[audience cheering]
[Martina] I played for a while longer.
[commentator] Of the greatest names in tennis history, men and women,
no one before today had ever won nine singles titles.
That belongs alone to Martina Navratilova.
[audience applauding]
[Martina] My best years were behind me.
[Chris] And Martina perhaps sensing
that this could be the last time she is a winner on center court.
I know you guys have been waiting for this announcement for a long time.
Some of you, it seems, for at least ten years.
So here it is.
1994 will be, definitely, my last year.
[reporter] Thirteen thousand people gave Navratilova
a one-minute, 40-second standing ovation.
And as she left for the final time,
the player the other women on the pro circuit called a legend
took a pinch of that famous Wimbledon grass
as her souvenir.
[journalist 1] The 167 singles victories, more than any man or woman.
Eighteen Grand Slam titles.
[journalist 2] Nine Wimbledon championships.
[journalist 3] Those titles spanning three different decades.
[Martina] I have to thank tennis for my life,
and it's been a wonderful, wonderful life.
[emotional music playing]
Their story just being rivals in the sport of tennis
would be a great story right there.
But this now shared experience of going through cancer treatments,
supporting each other,
it's what you want from your friends.
Support and love and care.
Usually it doesn't come from someone who's beaten you like 37 times.
But that's what makes this even more extraordinary.
[receptionist] You'll walk all the way down past the exit sign.
-[Martina] Thank you so much. -[receptionist] You're welcome.
-[oncologist] How do you feel? -[Martina] Good. A little nervous.
[oncologist] All the images.
If there's a tumor, it's going to show up as a yellow color.
Nothing. Completely normal.
No cancer.
The official report came out already.
No cancer spreading anywhere.
That's what number three's saying. No FDG, nothing spreading.
There's nothing. Clear, clear, clear.
Post-treatment changes, breast, everything. I mean, that's all good.
Wax and waning. Okay, yep, everything looks great.
[Martina] You don't ever know how much it's gonna hit you one way or the other.
You're still scared. [inhales]
And this is-- this is a big one because now it's done, done, done, done, done.
And if I ever get cancer again, it will not be related to this,
so I'm done with this fucker for good. [inhales]
[tender music playing]
[softly] Do you want me to tell them to turn it off?
[Martina] You don't realize how much strain it is
until it's not there anymore.
[phone line ringing]
[over speaker] Good morning, Chris. It's Dr. Cardenas here.
-[Chris] How are you? -Good. Listen, excellent news.
Your CAT scan of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis was clean and pristine…
[Chris exhales loudly]
…which means no evidence of cancer cells anywhere.
[softly] Oh, fuck.
Okay. I don't know what else to say. [laughs]
I'm just so happy.
[voice shaking] I was worried about that for a long time.
[Chris laughs]
[Alex] Gosh.
Oh, man.
[phone line ringing]
[Martina] Hello.
Um, I told you I would call you when I found out the news.
-Yeah. -And I'm all-- I'm all clear.
-Yay! -[Chris laughs]
[Martina exclaims]
I'm so relieved.
That's great.
I can go to sleep with a smile on my face.
[tender music playing]
-[birds chirping] -[leaves rustling]
[Jenkins] A lot of people who go through cancer will tell you
you spend a lot of time protecting the people around you.
[Chris] Nana?
Granny? Grandma? I don't know. What are you gonna call me?
[Jenkins] You don't wanna upset your children.
You don't wanna upset your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your husband.
So you keep it to yourself.
-[Chris] Thanks for coming. -[Martina] This is a big fucking deal.
-Yeah. -Watch the f-word.
This is a big deal.
[all laughing]
[Jenkins] Chrissie didn't have to protect Martina. She could let it go.
Tell her, "I'm scared."
"I'm sick."
[Chris] When you're in the moment of feeling like that…
-You feel like it's never gonna pass. -I know.
[Chris] Like, "How-- How can I get through this?"
[Jenkins] And Martina ended up being able to do that with Chris.
[Martina] There's no competition of whose cancer was worse.
We're in the same boat,
and we're both there for each other.
[Chris] Oh, there he goes. There he goes.
[Andy] It's like you're related.
[Martina] We're like Siamese twins without being actually connected. [laughs]
[doctor] Ring this chime to celebrate your last treatment
bringing you peace, luck, and healing in your journey.
Go at it.
Oh, okay.
-[chimes ringing] -[people cheering]
[people applauding]
[Jenkins] Chrissie and Martina's friendship proves
that sportsmanship is not some quaint fairy-tale idea.
It can really exist.
It can exist between two people
who duke it out for 18 Grand Slam titles apiece.
There have been players who won more Grand Slam titles than each of them,
but no one had to play a player of such absolute generational greatness
for every one of those titles, virtually.
[commentator] Yeah, both of these players are contending
for the number one player of all time.
They're both so good.
[Chris] I have my legacy and my record individually.
But I feel like
the rivalry is just as important if not more important.
[Martina] My nine Wimbledons to your three really helped me.
My seven French Opens to your… [snickering] …two.
[audience laughing]
[journalist] This rivalry, I think, lives in a land by itself.
Your right hand against my right hand. Let's see. Come on, baby.
[all laughing]
[Martina] We've been through so much,
the breakups and the marriages and the kids.
-We're taking care of each other. -[laughs]
[Martina] And of course the matches.
[emotional music playing]
[cheering]
I made it to 70.
[Chris] When we got cancer together, it really cemented our lasting friendship.
Martina and I hung in there with each other.
[Martina] "Body by Chris." Oh, this I wanna see.
Ooh.
[Chris] Through bad times, good times.
I think it's a testament to friendship.
[Martina laughs]
[Chris] There's no going back.
We're always gonna be tight.
[music fades]
Do you still play any competitive tennis against each other?
-[Martina] Competitive, are you kidding? -[Chris] Jesus.
[Martina] The competition is actually getting on the court.
[both laughing]
[Chris] If I didn't have a bum shoulder, I'd whip her ass.
[laughter fades]
[tender music playing]
[announcer] Miss Evert and Miss Navratilova lead in the final set.
[audience cheering]
[upbeat music playing]
[producer] This is something that I think about all the time.
-And I've asked both them, right? -Okay.
Would they be friends if they didn't each win 18?
[laughs]
What did they say? I know the answer.
-[Chris] You talking about Grand Slams? -[producer] Yeah.
-Would we still be friends? -[producer] Right.
As good of friends?
You'd have to ask her what she thinks.
Uh, I think it grows.
I mean, you see it with Roger and Rafa.
Their… You know, their respect and love for each other grew
the more they played each other.
Nobody's ever asked me that.
Anything about 18 Grand Slams each,
does that even affect your friendship, relationship, or--?
I think it all evens out,
but, um, on that front, we're… we're equal.
Um, and, you know, I'm good with that.
That's not what the base of our friendship is about.
[producer] Now I can sleep at night. Thank you, Chrissie.
[upbeat music fades]
[dramatic music playing]
[music fades]