‘Never Bought Into That’ – Chris Evert’s Ex-husband Lays Bare His Notion Over Her Iconic Martina Navratilova Rivalry

Published 02/15/2024, 11:52 AM EST

Sports are no stranger to iconic rivalries and tennis has seen more than most. From Andre Agassi vs Pete Sampras to Serena Williams vs Venus Williams, there has been no shortage of thrilling clashes. Then there is the unique story of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, enemies turned friends. The duo played in a number of key matches, with most of them going the distance. Even Evert’s ex-husband, John Lloyd, spoke about it in his autobiography.

Back then, Lloyd was also coaching Evert while she was at the peak of her game. As a result, he knew exactly what went on behind the scenes of Evert’s rivalry with Navratilova. Here’s an interesting anecdote from his autobiography.

John Lloyd describes the “brutal” animosity between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

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Despite being strong rivals on the court, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were good friends off the court and enjoyed mutual respect for each other. However, John Lloyd didn’t believe this was the true scenario.

In his autobiography, Dear John: The John Lloyd Autobiography, he says, “On the court, my then wife had it in spades. There was all this talk about Chrissie and Martina being the best of friends off the court and how that translated to a friendly rivalry on court. I never bought into that.”

Further, he went on to add, “I am not saying they disliked each other, simply that they were the best of enemies during matches. It was pretty brutal, actually.”

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The duo’s rivalry is considered to be the greatest one in women’s tennis. Although Navratilova leads the head-to-head record against Evert, she made a candid revelation when they had an equal record against each other.

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When Navratilova didn’t want to play against Evert

In the 80 matches played between Evert and Navratilova, the latter leads by winning 43 of those. However, when the score was 30-30, Navratilova didn’t want to play against Evert anymore.

She once said, “I wish we could just quit right now and never play each other again because it’s not right for one of us to say we’re better.” Indeed, the end result can be tough sometimes and despite fighting hard for years, Evert fell behind against Navratilova.

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What is your favorite tennis rivalry? Let us know your views in the comments below!

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Written by:

Vatsal Shah, a Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports, combines sports management insight with two years of rich content creation experience. His journey at ES involves delving into the core of tennis, covering ATP/WTA tours, and contributing around 2000 articles. Notably, one of his pieces on Venus Williams garnered over 400k views.

Edited by:

Arunima Bhanot

‘Never Bought Into That’ – Chris Evert’s Ex-husband Lays Bare His Notion Over Her Iconic Martina Navratilova Rivalry

John Lloyd describes the “brutal” animosity between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

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When Navratilova didn’t want to play against Evert