[samn]

Originally Posted by Petronius

Although Martina was born in Prague, they shortly afterwards moved to a little town of Řevnice (just 6 km from Prague). The local tennis club where she developed her amazing skills now bears her name. The club was founded as early as in 1902.

Is Revnice only 6 km from Prague? (Hmm, perhaps I ought to have visited the town when I was last in Prague a few years ago.) So what was Hana Mandlikova smoking when she essentially called Martina a country bumpkin?

Talking of America, for example, and the amplitude of consumer goods on offer there for those with the money to afford them, Hana said she had always been able to get any goods she wanted in Czechoslovakia, whereas Martina has confessed she was dazzled by the range of things you could buy just in a local supermarket. "Maybe that was because she came from a little village," said Hana loftily. "Maybe they couldn't get things there so that's why she got so FAT."

[Rollo]

LOL@ how catty that Hana comment was

Watching TV I saw a commercial for a TV show where Martina will put in a guest appearance on the TV show Portlandia.

[Wimbledon9]

I thought Martina herself said in her autobiography that though she was born in Prague she really was a countrygirl.
Martina's mother and stepfather were no member of the communist party so then you had low jobs, I looked it up Martina said they had not much money.

Hana's father was an athlete so maybe he was treated better and had more food.
Martina also said it was about 30 minutes on a slow train to Prague from Revnice maybe there were a lot of stops.

People in Revnice are not at all surprised when tourists visit Revnice, but this summer even the locals from Revnice were surprised. About 70 Australians appeared in Revnice to look as they said where Martina lived and trained there is always an exhibition about tennis in Revnice in the clubhouse that mostly is about Martina.

The locals said at least one Australian shed a tear from emotion. They all got a book about Revnice. All the people that go to Revnice probably read Martina's autobiography but have you heard if people do this with other players.
I read it in a Czech newspaper and used google translation.

[Petronius]

Originally Posted by samn

Is Revnice only 6 km from Prague? (Hmm, perhaps I ought to have visited the town when I was last in Prague a few years ago.) So what was Hana Mandlikova smoking when she essentially called Martina a country bumpkin?

My mistake It's about 9 km south-west from Prague. So on one hand it's still pretty close to the capital, but on the other hand the place has a small-town atmosphere.

But is it enough to call Martina a country bumpkin? You make the decision

[Petronius]

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

About 70 Australians appeared in Revnice to look as they said where Martina lived and trained there is always an exhibition about tennis in Revnice in the clubhouse that mostly is about Martina.

The locals said at least one Australian shed a tear from emotion. They all got a book about Revnice. All the people that go to Revnice probably read Martina's autobiography but have you heard if people do this with other players.
I read it in a Czech newspaper and used google translation.

It was a shocker to read that so many tourists would show up so I checked the Czech article and I have to say that google translator misled you. There were actually two 70-year old Australian tourists (tennis players). The rest of the story (tears, book, etc.) is true though.

There are two reasons why I think the tennis club is not visited by tourists or tennis fans as much as it could be. First, Martina is 20+ years past her most famous period, when she was an active player, and doesn't currently have that much TV&press exposure and second, the site is probably not promoted enough in tourist guides.

Short time ago, I actually met an Australian couple on a local train heading from Prague and they were going to visit the famous ossuary in the town of Kutná Hora, because it was recommended in their tourist book. I doubt Martina's tennis club was mentioned there so they didn't even know about this option.

If you're in the Czech Republic: besides visiting the tennis club where Martina developed her tennis skills, it's possible to do exactly the same for other Czech-born players (Ivan Lendl, Hana Mandlikova, Martina Hingis, Jana Novotna, etc.) and visit places/clubs where they learned to play tennis.

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

Martina also said it was about 30 minutes on a slow train to Prague from Revnice maybe there were a lot of stops.

Spot on! Until today, the journey takes 32 minutes from the Prague main train station. There are almost ten stops before the train reaches Řevnice.(http://jizdnirady.idnes.cz/draha/?p=...EzNTY5NTgyNjY-)

[Wimbledon9]

Sorry Petronius for the mistakes, as a dutch person I had to rely on the translation unfortunately I do not speak the Czech language. I thought already it were a lot of people.
Something I noticed in translations from google in eastern European languages that they make males out of females and vice versa very disturbing.

Petronius they always call all the European countries which fell under communism Eastern Europe but I consider Austria which was free, now Chech Republik and Hungary Middle European countries is that a mistake of me or am I right.
Where they not connected at sometime and very prosperous before communism. You have maybe the best composer in Antonin Dvorak.

I think you totally overlook the second career of Martina remember she retired in 2006 that is only 6 years ago.

By the way Martina defended her country of birth very well against an ultra rightwinger on twitter who said she came from a third world country.

[Petronius]

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

Petronius they always call all the European countries which fell under communism Eastern Europe but I consider Austria which was free, now Chech Republik and Hungary Middle European countries is that a mistake of me or am I right.
Where they not connected at sometime and very prosperous before communism. You have maybe the best composer in Antonin Dvorak.

Central Europe or Middle Europe would be the best term I think.

It's true that before communism the Czech lands were quite developed and prosperous, containing about 75% of the industrial capacity of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (which was ruled from Vienna). The Škoda works were one of the biggest engineering firms in Europe (Hitler was very happy when he got it after the infamous Munich agreement in 1938) and according to wikipedia, two of the world's five oldest automakers are Czech (Škoda and Tatra), which may be a shocker to some people who lump all ex-communist countries together.

Like in your country, the Netherlands, there were huge economic, cultural and personal ties to Germany and also Austria so for example people like Ferdinand Porsche (automaker), Daniel Swarowski (jeweller), Franz Kafka (writer) or Sigmund Freud (psychoanalyst) all come from today's Czech Republic. Until 1945, more than 3 million Germans lived here.

After the fall of communism, the natural economic and other ties with Western Europe and especially German-speaking countries were restored and some journalists now even refer to the Czech Republic's economy as the 17th German state BTW, isn't Holland called the same sometimes?

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

You have maybe the best composer in Antonin Dvorak.

He's great, but I don't rate him the best. I think Mozart, Mendelssohn or Schubert were even more talented, but they died quite early before creating even more masterpieces. But his New World Symphony is amazing and it even came on top in a recent radio poll conducted in Australia, beating all Beethoven symphonies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Symphony_(ABC))

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

Sorry Petronius for the mistakes, as a dutch person I had to rely on the translation unfortunately I do not speak the Czech language. I thought already it were a lot of people.
Something I noticed in translations from google in eastern European languages that they make males out of females and vice versa very disturbing.

Google translator is quite helpful, but it still struggles with lots of expressions and language nuances.

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

By the way Martina defended her country of birth very well against an ultra rightwinger on twitter.

Nice to hear, Martina is tough

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

who said she came from a third world country.

Tell that to Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Johannnes Kepler, who all lived and worked in Prague for many months or even years

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

I think you totally overlook the second career of Martina remember she retired in 2006 that is only 6 years ago.

This is true, but it would have been much easier to set up an attractive tourist site during Martina's peak years. Martina's case is kind of similar to that of Ferdinand Porsche. Both household names worldwide but persona non grata in their native country (Martina a defector to the West, Porsche a German-speaking capitalist who worked with Hitler).

BTW, Škoda & Volkswagen have just bought the Porsche native house in north Czech Rep. and they will probably build a museum there and promote it in tourist books. So why not promote Martina's site in Řevnice as well, especially if it's so close to Prague?

[Wimbledon9]

Thanks Petronius for your extensive answers you may not agree but I like Dvorak maybe something like personal taste.

I have never been to Prague but if I travel to the city I will certainly go to Revnice.
Of course the communist would not make a hero of Martina that would have told they were very wrong in being so hard on her before her defection.

I always thought were it the gods to intervene that Martina won her 9th Wimbledon title half a year after the Velvet Revolution?

To me Martina has always been the most special player, I really do not know why I missed the first years of her career but I think 1977 or 78 she really did strike me.

I am very sorry that she lost a lot of years through her transition after her defection because she then would have been hands down the best player ever, for me she still is but not for others.

Remember just three titles less then Margaret Court her natural enemy 62 against 59. But then nobody had to do it like Martina and she still did remarkebly well.
When is the term of Kaderka president of the Czech tennis federation over, just asking you know why.

[Pat Bateman]

Martina and Julia on New Years Eve:

https://twitter.com/Martina/status/2...797248/photo/1

[Sam L]

I just came in here to say what a nice person Martina Navratilova is. She is opinionated and sometimes she is wrong but that's not a bad thing. I've loved her philanthropic work. I don't like her serve and volley game but I admire her achievements in this sport. She is certainly the Greatest.

[Petronius]

Originally Posted by Wimbledon9

Thanks Petronius for your extensive answers you may not agree but I like Dvorak maybe something like personal taste.

I have never been to Prague but if I travel to the city I will certainly go to Revnice.
Of course the communist would not make a hero of Martina that would have told they were very wrong in being so hard on her before her defection.

I always thought were it the gods to intervene that Martina won her 9th Wimbledon title half a year after the Velvet Revolution?

To me Martina has always been the most special player, I really do not know why I missed the first years of her career but I think 1977 or 78 she really did strike me.

I am very sorry that she lost a lot of years through her transition after her defection because she then would have been hands down the best player ever, for me she still is but not for others.

Remember just three titles less then Margaret Court her natural enemy 62 against 59. But then nobody had to do it like Martina and she still did remarkebly well.
When is the term of Kaderka president of the Czech tennis federation over, just asking you know why.

Sorry for late answer. Interesting that you've never visited Prague, you should do it at least once!

I'm not sure what is your question about Mr. Kaderka, but I know that he had some personal dispute with Martina and he initially did not invite her to the Fed Cup final. Unlike Ivan Lendl - who arrived for the Davis Cup final and celebrated the win with the players - Martina decided not to come. It may be Kaderka's fault, because some think that he is rude.

If you're asking about his term of office, in February 2010 he was elected for the fourth consecutive term (for 4 years) which should expire in 2014.

Yes, it's nice that she won in 1990 after the fall of communism. I was actually hoping she would make it to 10 titles in 1994, but it was hard against Martinez, who was 16 years younger!

She may have won more without dealing with transition issues, but I'm glad that she inspired Melanie Molitorova to name her daughter after Martina and turn her into an amazing player. And then there's the 2011 Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, who was also inspired by Martina.

So it's all good.

P.S. I hope you enjoyed the recent Martina vs. Martina exho in Adelaide!
P.P.S. Don't get me wrong, I love Dvořák and frequently play his Humoresque on the piano

[Wimbledon9]

Yes Petronius I enjoyed the exho in Adelaide. About Kaderka I followed it as much as I could.
Lendl etc were all invited by the ITF not by Kaderka because they played enough matches and were the winners of 1980.
Martina won her Federatio Cups for 2 countries, the only player who did that so she did not have the criteria and was not invited by the ITF.
Kaderka did not want to invite Martina but under public pression he invited her so late through e-mail that she had an obligation for AARP she works for.

Martina also said she would never talk to Kaderka. So this is the last I say about this story, except that a hockeyplayer offered his ticket to Martina but said his place was high under the roof.

[LightWarrior]

Nice documentary about the Evert/Nav rivalry. It's in German but there are interesting footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe3z2VMFIWQ

[ttaM]

Highlights from the 1993 Virginia Slims of Chicago final, Navratilova vs. Seles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiGpVhEbkzg

[colemohrlee]

great