American tennis legend, Martina Navratilova, was one of the top entertainers of her time. The 65-year-old gave many memorable performances in her long career. Among her most memorable moments on the tour, none surpasses the famed on-court battles that she had with her archrival, Chris Evert. Despite vying for the biggest trophies, the two shared a strong friendship that materialized during the initial stages of their rivalry.

However, it has been a long time since we have seen such intense on-court rivalry in women’s tennis. Here’s what Navratilova thought of the same.

Martina Navratilova believes it’s a cycle

In an interview, back in 2012, Navratilova gave her opinion on the lack of top-level rivalry in women’s tennis, while men’s tennis is thriving with the big three (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal.)

“It’s just the sporting cycle. When it was Chris [Evert] and me, there was a flux in the men’s game. You had McEnroe, you had Becker, you had Borg, you had Connors, but it did not sustain itself.”

Going further, she pointed out the emergence of arguably the three GOATs in the same era in the men’s circuit.

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“There were a lot of stars, but nobody really dominated for a long period. Now, of course, you have had Nadal v Federer for five or six years and now it has become Djokovic v Nadal. So now you have three of the greatest men’s players that ever played the sport playing at the same time,” she said.

Read more: ‘You’re the Chris Evert?’ – Martina Navratilova’s Grandmother’s First Reaction Upon Meeting Her Grand Daughter’s Rival in the United States

Although there are a lot of young talented players on the WTA tour currently, over the years a fierce rivalry has been missing on the women’s tour.

When competitive spirit affected the friendship of Evert and Navratilova

Navratilova and Evert are the perfect example of lifelong friends. However, playing against each other on the topmost level, understandably, affected their relationship to a small extent.

In an interview, Evert accepted that her relationship faltered with Navratilova when the latter started winning matches against her.

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However, with time, they both matured and managed their game and relationship simultaneously. Interestingly, both legends ended up with 18 Grand Slam singles titles and chose to continue in the sport as commentators and pundits after their retirement.